Fate's Spark
by jasper53fox
Summary: Naruto's has been left damaged after failing everyone, he ends up back in time but is emotionless to nearly everything and everyone, Kakashi is concerned. Kakanaru, Timetravel, fluff! and broken!Naruto (his emotions are everywhere xD)
1. Chapter 1

The world is rotting; slowly collapsing, being washed away and burned up it was forever rotting with time. It was like his heart, falling to pieces and discolouring, no matter how much one tried to ignore it. A world and a heart were so much alike, breaking when hit with unexpected hardships, discolouring when life is lost. His heart was repeatedly attacked with unexpected punches full of sorrow, anger, guilt and regrets that tolled. Chuffing out a weak laugh, he looked at the stars focusing on not looking at the bright blood moon, the stars that twinkled and sparked watching as they went through their own hardships and pain. As he watched he reminisced about another type of twinkle and spark that were part of a couple familiar mismatched eyes. Those eyes would twinkle with happiness and amusement and spark with ferocity, but they were soon dimmed as fate took hold just like the stars above soon would. He was no longer amused, Naruto sighed, Fate.

Much like this world, his friends, his belief, his memories, his hardships and promises he would succumb to fate, his heart would dim just like this world. He couldn't feel the solid ground anymore, he couldn't feel the blood that was on his chin and he couldn't feel the headband he knew was in his hand, fate was dimming his heart to fast to feel what was left. Heh, he had laughed in the face of fate once trying to make his own way, either way it still ended the same for all, fate had collapsed his world around him many times but much like his nindo way, he rebuilt. Not giving up. Now that he thought about it, he had people to help to lean on. His comrades were all gone now. Could he rebuild?

No, not today. Maybe not any day. Naruto's eyes dimmed, the twinkle gone. He could not recover in a land of nothing. Something could not be built on nothing, with nothing; without one's support, one cannot continue. A lone wolf may be alone but it wouldn't be long before it gains however unwanted a support, it cannot go back. Naruto wheezed, no he cannot rebuild today.

He was but a thorn in fate's side, eventually it would win, so now that it caught him it was preparing to dim the annoying spark. He could feel it now more than ever, the slowing of his heart, his blood, and his thoughts. A breeze grazed him; he felt a smile crawl onto his face. He would always laugh in the face of fate.

The darkness surrounding his sight brought his attention to one twinkling spark left that was being closed in and dimmed. For a brief moment he thought about the wind, he wondered whether or not such a constant was under fate's control. Free as the wind they say?

He could feel himself floating, but was too unconscious to recognise what it was, like being stuck between sleep and awake, being aware and not at the same time. His first instinct was to laugh, but he stiffened instead as he suddenly felt his senses bombard him, rushing past a floodgate. The smells of old wood and the sounds of crickets at night, the feelings were wonderful he could feel a softness long unknown to him. It wasn't the right softness though, not of silver hair, if this was heaven then he would have to admit it was alright but he expected more. So another conclusion was that this was not heaven. Indeed if it were he would he the deep and wonderful sounding voice of his lover.

Maybe that was hoping for too much. Instead of dwelling he felt his body without moving in a form of meditation, recognising that everything was kind of fine he decided to open his eye's. The sight moved him; it was a ceiling, a specific one, a ceiling full of holes that was made from boredom at night with a kunai. Sighing as he realised easily what was going on, he looked at his clock, reading 1 o'clock at night. Sighing again in defeat he sat up and confirmed that when he felt through his body that he was indeed smaller than normal. He decided to walk things out, forever energised it seems. Naruto glanced at the calendar only to frown, it was that day huh?

What a disappointment, it was such an unoriginal time to go back to, he did reason that it was probably one of the most critical turning points of the past. Still, he did not like it and he barely wanted to be here, shuffling some black clothes on from somewhere in the back of his closet he left his apartment quietly, being barefoot was a choice he though was well made, he loved the feeling of the pavement under his feet after so long of being numb. The sounds of the night seemed to spark some life into him; that was another thing, did he feel anything anymore?

Looking up at the Hokage Mountain he tried to discern his emotions towards it. Nothing, sure there was respect but he felt no…longing or needs, he looked at his father and smiled a small smile. If only he had gone back far enough for him and kaa-san, no that would just be kicking fate in the ass then. He wondered if fate was playing with him or was also being played a puppet along with him. It must hurt either way, because he just defied fate once again. Huffing as he felt the cool wind blow through his blond locks his feet stopped as he felt the grass on a field touch them, it was a wonderful feeling after being stuck in mass rocky terrain and craters. The field he was in was familiar yet old, eyeing the log stumps and the small river flowing through he felt more at peace than ever. He walked over to the water and sat on the edge with feet in, letting the water wash his worries away.

He did not and could not look over to his left and behind a couple of bushes. The memorial stone could wait until he was ready to see all the unmarked names on there. For now he would meditate to feel his surroundings and himself, to calm himself even though he didn't need it.

Naruto came to five hours later when he heard talking, sitting up and stretching out a yawn he slowly got to his feet, he wasn't all too excited to see them, after all one abandoned me in the future and is annoying in the past, the other shoved another Chidori into his chest and is also generally annoying, whatever love he felt for them before he had to guess was now missing probably the price fate had for defying it again. Sighing as there was only one way to find out he walked around the corner of trees to see the two genin's talking, well one swooning and the other brooding.

'Hm, nothing huh?' sighing he started forward, 'as suspected I don't care for them' his feet stopped silently at the end of the bridge and waited for them to notice. The one-sided conversation stopped after 5 minutes when Sakura noticed the figure watching them while Sasuke looked over because of the silence. The pause must have lasted over a minute of tenseness as they had to adjust to the information brought in. Sasuke observed with a raised eyebrow as he saw that Naruto's clothes were one: black, two: ruffled and three: barefoot. His blond hair had twigs and leaves in them and he watched as the boy yawned before scratching the back of his neck in the most uncaring nature ever. So much so a Nara would be proud. The silence was broken with a screech from a banshee.

"NARUTO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" The boy sighed as he pulled his pinkies out of his ears. The sigh was long and drawn out, Naruto's gaze settled on Sakura before she could say another word, the gaze was hard with indifference, and she stopped out of surprise as his cold stare that had no emotions landed on hers.

"I am here for the test, of course" Naruto's cold and rough voice said in nonchalance as he looked to the sky, Sasuke couldn't determine if Naruto had a deep morning voice or if something had ultimately changed, he could feel the uncaring coldness and tension coming off of him in waves and couldn't help but feel something had changed. Naruto was surprised at his own voice underneath; it was the cold and rough voice of a war veteran. He decided to ignore the two who he could barely hear were trying to ask him something and watch the clouds go by instead, the clouds were white and fluffy and the complete opposite of war ravaged lands full of dark ominous clouds.

It was a while into cloud gazing before he noticed a chakra signature closing in on the vicinity, the tensing of his shoulders was on slight, someone would need to be amazing at observation to notice, Naruto felt that something was about to happen when he looked at the man approaching. Naruto took the last seconds before hearing his voice to steel himself.

"Yo, sorry I'm late but a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way around" he said as he waved lazily and eye smiled.

"YOU'RE LATE" Sakura accused while Sasuke glared, Kakashi was surprised to see the blond genin slowly getting up from the ground and looking around tiredly for the sound of a banshee that 'woke' him. Kakashi had not expected this, as Naruto's eye's landed on his one he felt something inexplicable, he observed as he saw indifference and coldness in the blonde's eyes at first but then some unknown emotion was shown. No not unknown, that was longing, it was gone again soon enough, replaced with a softer gaze before it turned cold as Naruto turned his eye's towards Sakura.

Frowning under his mask Kakashi observed Naruto's composure, he looked relaxed and without a care in the world but there was a tenseness and a sharp edge to him Kakashi wouldn't have noticed had he not seen his eyes. Kakashi couldn't help but notice how cute he was when he was ruffled from sleep, in black clothes and had no…shoes? 'What?' Kakashi raised an eyebrow at him.

"Naruto… where are your shoes?"

Naruto felt it when their eye's met, a spark it was such an intense feeling that he felt that his knees would collapse anytime soon, he longed to touch the silver hair, he longed to see the spark in his sharingan eye, he longed to feel the best and warmest hugs, the sweetest kisses and soft skin. Oh how in love was he. Naruto mentally shook himself before he did something damaging… like tackle hug him or yell at him for being stupid and dying in his arms. Nearly huffing a humourless laugh he turned his gaze to Sakura, maybe if he glared enough she would stop being so loud.

He saw Sakura flinch when he turned to her but she kept quiet. Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by Kakashi, who did not let the exchange go unnoticed,

"Naruto…where are your shoes?" Naruto looked down at his feet and smiled when he still felt he grass underneath them, a reminder, he realised he didn't want to put on any shoes. Stretching his toes into the ground in happiness he looked up at Kakashi and shrugged uncaring.

Sighing Kakashi saw that the conversation on the importance of shoes would go nowhere with him so he proceeded to tell the details of the test. Kakashi was intrigued, Naruto had changed, he had this uncaring nature that even surpassed him, he also had a coldness of a war veteran in his eyes. No longer would he be interested in some last Uchiha, he wanted to observe his sensei's son and observe he did.

During the test Naruto did nothing but walk away and sit in a tree to sleep, of course he wasn't actually sleeping but Kakashi didn't know that. Kakashi was dumbfounded so when the test bell rang after he messed with the other genin's unable to mess with Naruto; he tied Sakura up and called out for him. Naruto casually walked out, he was surprised Kakashi didn't get to him but it was okay he got to rest, sitting down on the other side of the stump from Sasuke who was looking coldly at him, he looked up at Kakashi tiredly.

Sighing, Kakashi decided to scrap the original plan and just be blunt.

"Do you know the purpose of this test?" he pretended to aim it at the whole team but he was specifically asking Naruto. Naruto smiled in amusement to Kakashi, the glint in his eye showing how much he knew.

"Such a team would never work Kakashi- sensei, broody wouldn't ever listen to me nor Sakura, I believe that given time maybe but who knows?" he shrugged and looked away uncaring. Kakashi sighed again in disappointment. Only slightly noting his voice change, could be puberty.. or something else.

"You could have at least tried" he said weakly, "Well the test was teamwork" he finalised to the other two confused genin. He watched as surprise and realisation dawned their faces before looking at Naruto accusingly, Kakashi decided to intervene before they got their heads bitten off or something.

"Sakura, Sasuke" he looked at them accusingly, "You KNOW you wouldn't have listened, I know that too so there was a second part to it especially for the failing of the first test, but circumstances were adjusted for it" he ended as he eyed Naruto. The two genin nodded while Naruto looked at him with an eyebrow raised?

Kakashi had stopped because he was curious as to what the blond would say, it was enlightening and confusing at the same time. Kakashi turned his gaze back to the other two genin;

"You two are at the top of your class and yet you are both blinded, look underneath the underneath" He sighed again, he had to take the team no matter what otherwise he would have the council after him.

"You are all a disappointment" Kakashi saw a flash of hurt from Naruto's eyes which was different to the regret from the other two, "but, I am willing to give you all another chance, team seven will report back here tomorrow, I warn you now that because of your failure we will have weeks of D-ranks to compensate and build teamwork, dismissed" Kakashi watched as the two of them left while Naruto stayed obviously knowing that he wanted to talk to him.

"Yes?"

"Naruto…a-are you okay?" Kakashi asked as he decided to finally kneel in front of Naruto concerned.

Naruto smiled a small grateful smile at him that warmed Kakashi and made him even more concerned.

"Ne Kakashi?" he paused swallowing, he cautiously continued, "Is it weird to feel empty?" Kakashi only turned his head to the side waiting for a continuation. Naruto's voice went hard as he went into memory;

"When you feel dim like the spark has left you, after you have lost so much, how can you keep going? Rebuilding? When you know that fate will catch up and leave you dead, every world dies as does every heart eventually, how do you keep going when you know the end is just death?" Naruto looked up at Kakashi expectantly with hidden emotions. Kakashi was shocked, Naruto was being so deep, and Kakashi recognised the mid-life crisis thoughts immediately from his own hardships. Whoever this knew Naruto was Kakashi saw that he needed help and companionship.

"Well Naruto think of it like this, there are lots of losses in the universe and fate may be unkind, but it has only been unkind in one way, in who it chooses shall pass on and who shall stay, death is a constant but it is a journey there. We should all greet death as a friend but have the best journey of our lives while we are here, humans like meaningful things Naruto, it may seem unfair that a friend dies and you live but sometimes you have to live with fact, but that comrade has left something meaningful" Kakashi said as he put his hand over Naruto's heart, "In here they left the rest of their time to you and giving up, not rebuilding is not living up to their meaning, they need you to continue their journey Naruto, as I have done many times" he said as he pulled his hitai-ate up and uncovered his sharingan.

The Sharingan recorded the tiny unnoticeable emotions in Naruto's eyes, consideration, surprise, longing, gratitude and small twitch of the lips that would have been a smile in reminiscence at the sight of the sharingan. The well of emotions Naruto had was incredible, he could feel a lot right now, putting a hand where Kakashi had touched his heart he looked down and blushed,

"The journey…" Naruto mumbled before he smiled slightly. "The best possible journey is what we're fighting for" looking up Naruto could see Kakashi's eye-smiles.

"Thank you Kakashi- Sensei" he smiled up at him gratefully.

"No worries Naruto; if you ever need to talk don't hesitate to ask, you are my student and that means you are under my protection" Kakashi said with a soft and warm voice to Naruto before ruffling his hair.

To say the least Naruto was inexplicably happy the next day and couldn't stop smiling in the privacy of his home, but if you looked hard enough you could see delightful spark in his eyes as he unconsciously touched his chest where his heart was.

This is just for fun but i might continue, idk i really love Kakanaru and timetravel so *shrug*

Ask if you want more, i can try cook some more up, it'll be more on Kakanaru interactions and skipping most of the canon story to be honest.

Anyways, later. Jasper~


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto…is an odd ninja, Kakashi had concluded. After all he was having a mid-life crisis before he was even out in the field. Something had happened; the most likely conclusion was that he had a mask for most of his life. Kakashi couldn't help but feel regret at not seeing something like this sooner, the pain he saw in Naruto's eyes were confusing and no less heart breaking, they were the eyes of someone who had seen a comrade die, someone who's seen a war. Kakashi had half a mind to ask him to introduce himself again or have a spar; the responses would be no doubt interesting.

However as Kakashi observed him, he could see the hesitance to train, the uncertainty when picking up a kunai, maybe Naruto was regretting becoming a ninja but it didn't make any sense. Kakashi was starting to get stressed when thinking about anything Naruto related. All his observations of Naruto that he scrounged up were intriguing but were like puzzle pieces from two completely different jigsaws. Naruto is still stubborn but just in the fact that he doesn't want to wear shoes. Sometimes he sees the old Naruto in his eyes when he's happy or at peace. The first time we went to see the Hokage as a team he smiled a genuine one, and then he proceeded to say hokage-sama instead of jiji. It was the most mixed display he got, everyone seems confused about him, Kakashi had had to relay everything he noticed to the Hokage.

He drew out a long sigh as he sat on the tree watching his genin wait for him. All Naruto did was lay around even more than Shikamaru Nara, nor does he even consider working with his teammates being more quiet than Sasuke during d-ranks.

'Right today I'm going to have to push the team work" sighing again Kakashi hopped down to his genin.

"Yo" Kakashi said, appearing with a poof of smoke. Naruto got up from cloud watching and dusted off, only to look up at Kakashi and see a gleam in his eyes. That made Naruto pause as he could easily tell something was up. Naruto narrowed his eye's at Kakashi who just smiled.

"Teamwork is important, so to build our teamwork you are to bare truths while I ask some questions about each of you. Then I will have you tell your weaknesses and strengths for your teammates to determine what you should work on. To work as a team we need to know what everyone is good and bad at so you can incorporate it in missions. Trust your comrades with your information"

Naruto stilled, of course he would want to test him now that he's so drastically changed, Naruto smiled, he would work with this team when he needed to but they are still young and naïve, no matter how much of an ass Sasuke was when older he was better than this arrogant kid. This could work in his favour though…

Sasuke and Sakura could all but look on in confusion at the exchanges between their sensei and teammate.

"So first off, what was your purpose in becoming a ninja?" Kakashi eye-smiled at them, "Sakura?"

Sakura looked confused, she wanted to go where Sasuke went of course but.. why? Sakura was shaken, she had no idea what to do.

"I-I don't…I-" Kakashi interrupted her, "Sakura people become ninja's for a purpose of their own, one that means something deeply to them. It is best that you find what you're fighting for instead of what you're eyeing" Kakashi was completely serious and Naruto couldn't agree more, "Being a ninja is a dangerous path, looking good on the field will only get you and your teammates killed" Kakashi knew he hit something so he continued on to the next genin.

"Sasuke, why are you a ninja?" "To gain power" was the immediate reply, Kakashi nearly sighed again at this; Sasuke would be a tough one while Sakura just needed a little push Sasuke might need a knock to the head.

Naruto decided to intervene, "Power isn't everything, it can't fill the whole in your heart nor can it distract you for very long from the original hurt, it'll only make it worse in the end when you have the abilities but not the dream" Sasuke just looked over at Naruto with a frown.

"What would you know dobe" he spat but immediately stiffened when Naruto looked up from the ground he was glaring at, Naruto's pain filled gaze settled on him.

"What would I know…" he paused while slowly turning his body, "I know that in a world full of hate, when one takes a clouded vision of vengeance, he is only going to spawn more hate, it is an unstoppable cycle of hate, pain, vengeance. No peace can be attained." Sasuke was about to retort coldly when Naruto interrupted.

"Kakashi- sensei, I wish to tell them, tell them of the S-class secret" Kakashi was shocked, he wanted to tell them? Kakashi only nodded slightly in response, it was Naruto's secret to tell after all.

"What secret?" Sakura said confused while Sasuke leaned forward interested now.

"The Kyuubi, he couldn't be killed then and there, he is too powerful as a body of chakra so instead he had to be sealed" Naruto looked down to use his hair to shadow his eye's.

"The history is a lie to anyone who doesn't know the truth, the kyuubi was sealed into a child that had to be born that day, because only they could get used to the immense chakra. The child chosen was me"

Kakashi watched as Sakura and Sasuke recoiled, Sasuke looked incredulous at first but saw Kakashi shake his head at them before they could accuse.

"When the kyuubi attacked it had a reason, some shinobi had hurt it, and in turn for vengeance the kyuubi hurt the village. People had family and friends who died in the attack they also wanted vengeance. Hate is a powerful but useless thing, because of hate I have suffered, I am not the kyuubi, I am the cage but they can't see that. Sasuke, mobs attack me, shop keepers sell me overpriced junk, people glare at me in the streets and tell their children to stay away"

Kakashi sighed and shook his head again, the villagers are very naïve, and he hoped Naruto could get through to Sasuke better than him.

"In the end I could hate this village, I have more right to hate it than anyone else but it won't get me anywhere to destroy it over something I couldn't control, it won't fill the hole in my heart"

Sasuke was dumbstruck, 'no wonder Naruto is alone', so he decided to ask one simple question that Naruto was waiting for.

"How come..how come you don't hate the village?" Naruto smiled.

"Oh I sometimes do even when you can see the good in everything you can hate but.. just one tidbit of information about the Kyuubi attack was all I needed to stop. I suggest you too find some information Sasuke" Kakashi was surprised, Naruto knew much more than he let on, he hinted that there was more to the massacre and that something about the kyuubi attack stopped him from hating.

Naruto of course was lying about the tidbit, he never hated the village, he was a little hurt at first but never could he hate his home, the tidbit of information was a cover-up. If push comes to shove he could admit that he knows who his father was and that he understands why he put the kyuubi inside him. Naruto was also hurt the first time he met his father, the exact same one that sealed the kyuubi into him, but Naruto could never hate.

"Are you saying there's more to the massacre!?" Sasuke looked offended. Naruto didn't answer instead he looked at Kakashi. Kakashi sighed and scratched his head.

"We should move on I guess, Sakura… truthfully tell me what your strengths and weaknesses are"

"Umm, I'm a-average at shuriken throwing and good at genjutsu, I barely know any jutsu but I understand a lot of the theory" Kakashi nodded before walking over to a tree.

"Sakura climb this tree with only chakra under your feet; like this" Kakashi showed her what he meant before letting her try. She managed to nearly climb to the top, confirming Kakashi's thoughts.

"Sakura I'm going to give you a training regime for your body and I have something in mind for your profession, with control like that you could be a great medic" Sakura beamed down at them, she was extremely happy for some reason to have done something for herself.

Kakashi turned to Sasuke and observed him for a second before he asked for his own strengths and weaknesses.

"I am well practised in taijutsu and ninjustu and as soon as I get my sharingan I can improve on genjutsu. I am adept at the standard weapon throwing" Sasuke shrugged, he was interested in what Kakashi would have in store for him. Kakashi tilted his head in thought.

"Show me your katas in taijutsu" Naruto wondered where this was going, it seemed Kakashi had something in mind for us last time after all, Naruto was concerned at what the jonin had in store for him. He hoped he wouldn't have to reveal any more things today.

Kakashi watched Sasuke's katas that are based mostly for the sharingan. He pulled out a sealing scroll and proceeded to summon a training katana.

"Sasuke this may interest you as it can fit your Uchiha style of taijutsu, most Uchiha used a weapon of some kind in their kata's" he handed over the katana to Sasuke who looked on in awe, not realising the chances before.

"I suggest you also learn some other taijutsu katas and types so that you can create your own style, like most do" He turned to Naruto then, who fought back a gulp.

Kakashi crouched in front of Naruto who looked suspiciously at him.

"Naruto I'm sure that you would like to learn something special, your mother she was an Uzumaki and the Uzumaki were proud of their sealing arts even if such formidable arts brought them down. I only think it right that you take on their legacy" Naruto looked surprised at that, Kakashi thought he could take after his mother?

No one had ever said that to him before, Jiraiya had never said something like this either, he just taught him some of the basics.

"My mother?" Naruto couldn't help the small tear that came to his eye. Kakashi eye-smiled,

"Sure, she was a powerful kunoichi and very fierce, your father was formidable in the arts too but your mother was the most…creative" Naruto smiled at that, he never doubted that his mother was just as brash and tricky as he was, using sealing in the most creative ways for pranks most likely.

"Kaa-san was a prankster?" Kakashi chuckled, "She definitely was, caught your dad a few times" Kakashi scratched his neck, he never thought Naruto would figure out the reasons his mother used the arts, but maybe it would help lighten Naruto's mood to let him prank.

"Naruto I'm sure she had her sealing arts and books somewhere, I can ask Hokage-sama if you want." Naruto was shocked; he never thought that his parents stuff could still be around somewhere.

"Yes, thank you Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said as he involuntarily hugged the jonin around the waist. Kakashi smiled and patted Naruto's hair, which he noted was quite soft,

"Alright Naruto I'll get back to you, but first" Naruto looked up at him confused.

"Strengths and weaknesses" Naruto scratched the back of his head at this.

"Eheh, ummm I'm okay at taijutsu because I have the power behind it and my stamina is great, my genjutsu is terrible also my jutsu arsenal could need expanding and my weapon throwing is okay I guess…" he trailed off, it was basically the truth, he just had other special abilities that didn't need much mentioning.

"Well then, try the tree walking exercise first to get more control of your immense chakra and then practise a couple of different types of taijutsu that might suit, I'd say..an unpredictable one would fit" Naruto laughed at that, unpredictable was correct. Kakashi smiled and pulled out a chakra paper.

"Channel chakra into this" he said as waved over the other two to give them a piece too.

Naruto knew what his was but he indulged anyway. Sasuke easily got fire and lightning while Sakura got earth. Naruto's split in half and then half again which surprised Kakashi.

"Naruto you've got a very strong wind affinity, anyway stick to your training regimes and meet here tomorrow" Naruto called to Kakashi before he left with the others.

"Kakashi-sensei can you tell me more about Kaa-san?" he asked nervously, everyone else before avoided the question and he only got what she was like from meeting her in his mind space.

"Of course Naruto, come on let's get food"

"Your mother's name was Uzumaki Kushina and was known as the Red Hot Habanero for how fierce she was and for her long red hair" Kakashi smiled at the awed look on Naruto's face that he tried to hide.

"She came from Uzishiogakure for the academy, she had quite the personality, very brash but fearless, she was eccentric and stubborn; much like you" Kakashi said endearingly as he looked at Naruto's bare feet, Naruto blushed at that.

"She grew up a bit like you to, she was foreign and was a jinchuuriki of the nine-tails before you" he said seriously causing Naruto to pause at that, Kakashi was doing something again, he could tell from the gleam.

"She hid most of her nervousness behind a mask and the trait tick of 'dattebane'" Kakashi looked at him at that. Naruto could see that he was trying to figure out his sudden change.

'Mask huh?' Naruto smiled giving no confirmation at the use of a mask. Kakashi sighed and proceeded on as Naruto ate some dango.

"Your mother had a special ninjustu type that I wonder if was passed to you, it was a type of moulded chakra that formed chains so formidable they could hold down a kyuubi if one wanted to, she could create very strong barriers with them" Naruto was very interested, he hadn't got much of his mother's jutsu or techniques but he had never tried moulding the chains.

"I will have to try to learn that sensei" Naruto smiled. Kakashi paused, he needed some answers as it was grating on him. If he didn't get any he might end up a zombie by the end of the week with no sleep.

"Naruto, why did you become a ninja? I forgot to ask before" The answer was an easy one for Naruto.

"To protect my precious people, sensei" he answered quickly. Kakashi nodded at the humble and slightly mature purpose.

"But Naruto, are you having trouble with becoming a ninja? Are you sure you can handle picking up a kunai?" Naruto paused. 'ah' he didn't want to go back to being proficient at killing so soon, he wanted to be at peace for a little while. Wars can be taxing; this answer will need to be a half truth.

"Ahh Kakashi-sensei" Naruto said awkwardly as he scratched the back of his neck. "I don't want to, kill, to save my comrades, I would but I don't want to fall, to needlessly kill" Naruto said, slightly downtrodden, Kakashi regretted asking but he had wanted to know. It seems he has cheer-up duty.

"Naruto, killing is a part of shinobi life but I can agree there are times where you don't have to kill, instead you can capture or just injure or let someone else deal with them even if it doesn't feel right leaving it to someone else." Kakashi paused in thought as it clearly wouldn't be enough.

"How about this;" Naruto looked up at him in interest, "I promise that so long as I'm around, I will stop you from needlessly killing, if it happens i'll help you stop and I'll put you back on track, because I will be by your side and I won't let you fall, okay?"

Naruto had tears in his eyes by the end of it and quickly nodded before hugging him again tightly. Patting Naruto's head Kakashi could see the love for his comrades from Minato and the hesitancy to kill from Kushina, Kakashi was glad he had these traits because as Naruto had said before he had every right to hate the village.

"Your mother didn't like to kill either, when she had to she mourned after her mission, she wrote her sorrow's in a journal or talked to her best friend and stood at the memorial stone, she was a very compassionate person" Naruto looked interested, his mother had a journal?

"Who was her best friend sensei?"

"She was best friends with Mikoto Uchiha; she very much hoped you'd be best friends with Sasuke you know?" Naruto chuckled at that.

"I don't know if he's my friend or rival sensei" Kakashi just smiled and patted his hair, both annoying Naruto and making him miss the feeling.

"Alright Naruto go home and rest up and I'll go do some errands, see you tomorrow"

"Thanks Kakashi-sensei" Naruto called as he ran off, leaving the bill to Kakashi.

 **I am very much loving this story, i really wanted to get the improvements of Sasuke and Sakura out of the way so they can be useful later. So sorry about that.**

 **Thanks for the many fav's and follows its amazing :3. Later~**


	3. Chapter 3

"Reporting, Hokage-sama" Kakashi said as he jumped through the towers window.

"Ah Kakashi, how is he?" Kakashi paused, 'where to start..'

"Unpredictable as always" Hiruzen stopped his work in interest and decided that lighting a pipe and a bottle of sake would be needed very soon.

"Start from the beginning Kakashi" He could see the troubles running through the one eyed jonin's mind.

"Well, he seems to catch on instantly when I'm about to change something in the routine" Kakashi chuckled at this, "I thought I would start improving their personal styles, so that maybe they can work together knowing each other's strengths, I asked Sakura and Sasuke why they become shinobi, Sakura was easy but I could see from a mile away that Sasuke was a tough one to change" Kakashi was probably going to get in trouble for this, taking a deep breath Kakashi continued;

"Before I could start talking, Naruto butted in with some very…interesting stuff" Hiruzen only merely raised an eyebrow, what could Naruto have possibly said this time, he could see the headache racing towards him like a bull.

"He said and I quote mildly, 'Power isn't everything it won't fill the hole in your heart', 'Vengeance is only going to spawn more hate' and then asked me if he could tell them his S-class secret. I let him Hokage-sama." The Third only sighed; it would have come out eventually and he could let it as it was really Naruto's secret.

"What did he say then Kakashi?"

"Well...he proceeded to say that someone did something to the kyuubi who attacked in vengeance and that vengeance is why he suffers from the villagers, Hokage-sama he said that he had every right to hate this village but he didn't want to cause more pain and hurt, apparently he got a piece of information about the attack that stopped him" Hiruzen was surprised.

"He suggested to Sasuke that he had to look underneath his own massacre?" Kakashi only nodded, leaving Hiruzen to sigh, he would be getting a visitor in the near future then.

"Anything else Kakashi?" Kakashi only nodded again.

"I told him about Kushina and he was interested in her sealing arts, ninjustu and journal, he was quite touched" Hiruzen smiled, Kushina Uzumaki was easier to explain than Minato, now that would be a likely disaster.

"Did you get anything else?" Kakashi thought about the promise he made and smiled.

"You'll be happy to know that when I asked him about his hesitance he said he didn't want to kill and that his purpose was to protect his precious people, but he didn't say anything about a mask."

Hiruzen sat in thought, Naruto was as unpredictable as ever and considering him taking after his mother in many ways but looks he could very much enjoy sealing arts. 'A mother's boy no doubt'.

"Alright Kakashi, we'll give him his mother's works, it seems he'll show more of himself in time" Hiruzen unsealed a draw full of the most important works of Minato and Kushina, the rest was sealed in blood at the families compound, so there was no need to protect them. Grabbing Kushina's journal's, ink sets and papers, he bound them and gave them to Kakashi.

"I trust you with Naruto Kakashi, help him please" Hiruzen asked in more ways than one to protect Naruto and help him through his unexpected griefs.

"Gladly Hokage-sama" Kakashi said before shunshinning away.

Naruto was for once waiting impatiently the next day; he really wanted his mother's stuff and if Kakashi didn't have it he would be found at the end of a prank later. Naruto was pacing through the grass, as Sasuke and Sakura watched from their own positions of reading some medic and kenjustu scrolls. They were concerned at the amount of expression on his face, and the fact that it was frustration was a bit scary. Naruto finally plopped onto the ground and calmed himself; maybe he could try moulding chakra then maybe chains.

Naruto sat in a lotus position as Sasuke and Sakura watched confused at the sudden change. Moulding chakra was hard when you could only feel nature chakra everywhere. It was nearly natural to go into sage mode. Only just managing to stop himself, Naruto focused on his own chakra and imagined chains, he didn't know if this would ever work but he had to try. The clinking of chains and feel of cold metal encompassed his mind.

He didn't know how long he sat there but a very distinctive voice pierced his concentration, Naruto concluded that Kakashi's voice was a sin. Naruto found he wouldn't mind hanging around and listening to such a sin.

Frowning at his own thoughts Naruto opened his eyes to see the jonin standing there eye-smiling.

"Hard at work I see" he said as he looked at the three, surprised that there were no protests of his lateness, which was fine because he would have had to use an old excuse. He was running out it seemed.

Naruto got up and walked right up to him and despite himself, looked up hopefully even though he tried to glare at the cyclops. All Kakashi could see was a cute pout. Laughing Kakashi held out a bound book full of papers to him. Naruto's face lit up in awe as he took the assortment gingerly.

The look of absolute admiration had Kakashi regretting not having his sharingan out. Naruto hugged them to his chest and looked up at Kakashi gratefully making the extra effort all worth it.

"Alright Naruto you can read that while I teach the others" Naruto nodded while Kakashi patted his hair and walked to the other two who were staring in confusion at the amount of emotions coming from the blond who had sat eagerly under a tree reading.

Naruto was incredibly happy, he decided to save the journal for later and instead read the notes on sealing. Naruto chuckled as it seemed his mum could barely keep up with all the types of symbols so she noted down what they all meant and did. It was perfect for Naruto; he started memorising the symbols, happy to read anything made by his mother.

Sasuke had been considering everything lately and it all made some form of sense much to his annoyance, he could now understand Naruto's weird situations, his loneliness, but there were some things he still couldn't understand about him, his sudden change in emotion was the worst. Any comments Sasuke made wouldn't even get Naruto to look at him much less to rise to the bait. Over the past week Sasuke had contemplated all the possibilities, all the ways hate seemed to permeate the world. Naruto was right of course, he wouldn't get anything to fill the hole in his heart and Naruto seemed to know this the most.

Sasuke held back a sigh, not allowing himself as an Uchiha to show much emotion, he had contemplated the thought that there could be more behind the Uchiha Massacre but he was scared even though he wouldn't admit it on his life, he was a little nervous at what he would find but he would need to know. So with this Sasuke finally made his way to the Hokage tower.

"Hokage-san" he said as he entered the room. Hiruzen looked up from his paperwork and nearly groaned aloud. 'Damnit Naruto, how could you do this to me', even if it would probably save Sasuke from his path the Third reasoned that it was nearly not worth the drama. Hiruzen motioned for privacy and activated seals before Sasuke could speak.

"Sasuke-kun, how are you today? Please have a seat" Hiruzen asked as he lit his pipe. Sasuke sat down while trying not to fidget; he hoped he wouldn't be sent away as it would probably be worse to know they were hiding something.

"I am fine Hokage-san, I came here to ask about something important" Sasuke said, Hiruzen nodded for him to proceed.

"About the massacre, is there… was there a reason behind it?" Hiruzen sighed

"Let's start at the beginning, after the kyuubi…" (Time-skip, cause erryone knows what happened)

Hiruzen paused, it would be a lot to take in, and he could see Sasuke's mind reeling.

"Sasuke your brother was ordered behind my back to kill your clan and have the choice to keep you alive or his whole clan would be killed without mercy, your brother made a great sacrifice and is currently spying for Konoha"

Sasuke was astonished, his brother chose the village? Who ordered Itachi behind the hokage's back? With blackmail no less.

Sasuke vowed to train so that he could help Itachi.

Naruto could see the improvements of teamwork already, while it couldn't be perfect and would take time in some regards but Sakura and Sasuke seemed to at least respect him now, and both seemed to find a new way of putting in the hard work, he could only guess Sasuke looked into his massacre, and Sakura seemed to consider her position even if she was still a bit of a fangirl. It seemed his presence and changes helped Kakashi move forward faster.

As Naruto contemplated the future, he was disgruntled to find that it was nearing the chuunin exams. The disgusting snake would need to get past him to get to seal Sasuke and then he would need to know that he was suddenly adept at seals to even win as Naruto had a plan to remove it as soon as possible, hopefully before he even felt the power of it. He didn't know if he could warn the Hokage anymore than last time though. Honestly Naruto couldn't help but feel that he would rather just cruise along and wing anything that comes his way. He never was a planner even if he is lazy, he isn't a genius.

Naruto sighed, his mom's journal mentioned her chains and how they were moulded but it took a lot of concentration for him to even start to mould his chakra into chains and then to make it physical and extend them and make them stronger. His mother was probably good at chakra manipulation.

He was hanging out at a small pond surrounded by trees; it was very secluded and was such a magical place sometimes. He couldn't help but feel a little weighed down at the prospect of the future, and his feelings weren't helping, he was basically impassionate about everything that didn't include Kakashi unless he found it slightly humorous. It was a weird humour too.

Kakashi had caused more emotions to show than anyone else, he guessed it was a given after all but he couldn't figure out if it was a bad thing or not, it didn't feel bad.

 **"GAKI"** ahh shit, he was in trouble, the fuzzball woke up after his hibernation it seems. Going into his mindscape he was met by Kurama's red eyes.

"Hello Kurama" Naruto smiled, "Sleep well?"

Kurama only glared at Naruto, **"What have you done now?"** "It wasn't me" Naruto just got a blank stare in return. Naruto sighed.

"I died and woke up in the past, with you out cold, snoring my head off mind you"

 **"Well isn't this just great"** "I know" Naruto agreed whole-heartedly even though Kurama actually meant something else.

Kurama sighed at the broken kit in front of him; he only had to be here for a minute to know something happened.

 **"Whatever caused the transition took a lot of my chakra, so be glad I'm even here kit."**

"I am, I could really use your help on what to do and what not to touch with a ten-foot pole" Naruto was obviously hung up on something.

 **"Well let's confirm some things to do and not to do and sort the rest out"** Kurama just seemed to confuse the blond. Kurama sighed making Naruto's golden hair swirl around.

 **"Ok the Chuunin exam, will you fight?"** It made Kurama further suspicious that Naruto actually contemplated it. Surely he would jump at the chance.

 **"Fine, think of it like this, you can choose not go and your whole team won't be accepted but that leaves you without an eye on Sasuke and on the other end you might actually make it to chuunin."** This easily made up his mind and confirmed he would compete.

 **"I'm sure you can beat the hebi without showing too much of your power, and you'll need a seal or two to stop him blocking me off"** Naruto nodded happily at this and explain that he understood seals and was most likely ready for whatever the snake had for him.

 **"And if he gets away?"** Naruto shrugged making Kurama sigh again, did he not care for the old kage? Did Naruto feel anything? Kurama on the other hand felt like he'd forgotten something…ahh Shukaku.

 **"Naruto, what about Gaara?"** This time it made Naruto stiffen, immediately he went wide-eyed and started running around in panic and yelling out about seals and sand. Kurama just watched as he jumped on walls and pulled out his hair, in amusement.

 **"Gaki"** Naruto paused to look at the fox. **"Go make a seal for him too"** Naruto nodded eagerly and left the fox to himself. Kurama sighed again, who was left in his precious people list. It didn't seem like much, Sasuke and Sakura were there but barely, all the other jinchuuriki it seemed. Oh and most definitely his silver haired cyclops kit. Kurama had easily taken a liking to the jonin and approved of the protective mate Naruto had chosen. Even if Naruto cursed him every time he mentioned it.

Naruto opened his eyes to the night sky, the fireflies and the nights sounds surrounded him, an inexplicable feeling filled him as he saw the twinkling stars. Touching his heart he thought about the copy-nin who'd helped him so far. 'Right, journey's, we each have our own but I'm going to help make other people's journey's better' Naruto smiled sadly as he thought, 'before they have to give theirs up to other's'. Naruto ran off to finish seals and prepare.

Gaara was the first one like him and he would never want him to go through pain again, so the seal was going to be put on him no matter what it came to.

The next day Kakashi found his genin late as usual, so as to give them their chuunin exam entries only to end up finding a zombie-like Naruto walking up later than him. Naruto had bags under his bloodshot eyes.

"Naruto?" Naruto looked over at him dazed, "Are you alright?"

Naruto paused a moment in concentration to process what he'd heard.

"Ah, Sensei don't worry about me, just did a bit too much work last night" Kakashi reluctantly looked away to explain the Chuunin exams and tell them to have the day off. Naruto was slowly making his way back to the apartment when Kakashi came up behind him as he wobbled.

"Hold on Naruto" he said as he pulled the tired genin onto his back and proceeded to walk him to his apartment. Naruto quickly fell asleep on Kakashi's shoulder, making Kakashi chuckle as he gripped his genin tighter. Jumping through Naruto's apartment window to place him into bed, and pull the blankets over his chibi, Kakashi brushed Narto's blond hair and pulled the nightcap on for him

Kakashi was about to leave when he saw a whole bunch of papers and ink on the desk. Looking at the seals made, the three were different and had a base but then something was put over then to change or counteract them.

The one that caught his eye was one similar to Naruto's seal but had another seal placed over it, he could see that the seal was meant to subdue. Frowning Kakashi could only guess the kyuubi's chakra and only made him confused and worried. 'Was the kyuubi causing troubles for his cute genin?'

There was a drawn out way to get rid of the seal on another paper that had five specific points and was most likely used by chakra. Kakashi sighed; this just made him more confused, the other seals were too far above the basics for him. Deciding to watch these play out he left the apartment more worried than ever and knew he would more than likely end up as a zombie too.

Naruto woke up in his warm bed very early the next morning, he stretched as he got up, needing something to eat. It was still dark out, leaving Naruto sitting there without anything to do, he looked at the chuunin exam paper and then the seals.

Grinning Naruto found an objective that can would assuage his boredom, getting his black clothes and sandals on he jumped out of his apartment in search of a certain future Kazekage. He raced along rooftops with chakra, sensing for the Shukaku's chakra. Naruto came to a stop at a hotel and jumped to the roof, the blond saw the redhead sitting watching the moon.

Naruto smiled, deciding it would not be best to sneak up on him he announced his presence.

"Hello", Naruto waved as Gaara turned his head. Gaara looked threateningly at the blond jinchuuriki, daring him to come closer. Naruto dared.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meet you" Naruto said as he took steps closer.

"Go away" Gaara said as he felt the urge of mother telling him to kill the brat. Naruto pouted, and decided that being blunt would work better with the Kazekage.

"That's not nice, especially since I'm a lot like you", Gaara looked confused and annoyed that someone could be anything like him, until Naruto flared some of Kurama's chakra.

"I was alone, hated, the scapegoat but I'm a little less alone now, so I want you to be less alone too" Naruto said while putting his hand out to him. Gaara stared at the hand, he couldn't understand.

"Why?"

"Because I look after my friends, that's why and helping each other is what friends are for" Gaara slowly reach out for his hand, clasping their hands together Naruto smiled brightly making Gaara twitch his lips upwards.

"Right, let's see what we can do about that seal, huh?" Gaara looked taken aback, ready to squash him for betrayal at any moment. Naruto put his arms up.

"Sorry I can show you the seal and tell you what I'm going to do, I really want you to be able to sleep and let you control his powers without him talking your head off" Gaara looked slightly worried, only Naruto would have been able to see it though. So Naruto pulled out the seal, it was a risk since he would be questioned about how he knew what the seal was but Naruto trusted him so much so that he would tell him all about the future anyway.

Naruto showed him what he would put over it and what each symbol added; most of it was barriers and protection, some control leaving Gaara stunned.

"You would do this… for me?"

"Of course" Naruto smiled brightly, he indicated for Gaara to show him the seal. The redhead hesitantly took off his shirt to show the seal over his heart. It was such a bad placement too, Naruto winced at that.

"It's tied to your heart, it will hurt" Naruto looked at Gaara suddenly unsure. At this Gaara only looked certain himself, telling Naruto to just do it already.

Naruto sighed and put up a silencing seal for the area, he started his task of carefully drawing the lines on Gaara's chest while he stood perfectly still. Breathing in as he finished he looked at Gaara for one more assurance. The redhead nodded making Naruto activate the seals, It started with just a couple of winces, before shaking then the future Kazekage was heavily gasping for air. Eventually Gaara gave out a strangled cry and a couple of blood curdling screams. Naruto was so tempted to hug the redhead, hold him from his pain but he had to keep the seals going.

Gaara stopped screaming as the seals died down, he was panting heavily with his hands on his knees. Naruto had a tear in his eye and quickly hugged Gaara before he could fall.

"I'm sorry" he choked out. Gaara just shook his head with a small smile he said,

"Naruto it's okay, it's…It's even better, I feel free" Gaara's voice said in awe.

"Thank you" Gaara smiled, but frowned as he was suddenly felt drowsy, not fully understanding he panicked, Naruto quickly assured him.

"Gaara your just tired, I'll put you to bed don't worry" Naruto smiled as Gaara fell asleep. His last coherent thought was 'how did he know my name?'


	4. Chapter 4

Gaara woke up… 'That was a weird' thought Gaara. He felt, refreshed, energised and dare he say it, happy. The redhead got up to stretch only to notice the blond in the room, sitting peacefully on a chair evaluating some seals. Naruto looked up and smiled at him, Gaara was thankful but he suddenly felt incredibly guilty. Gaara looked away nervous he would get rejected, be left alone again, Naruto would no doubt hate him.

Naruto easily saw the emotions; he could see Gaara about to close up on him.

"You know, everyone always thought that you were emotionless, but I've never had a problem seeing them. What's wrong Gaara?" Naruto had put his seals down, Gaara was clearly confused, he recalled last night, and how he knew his seal and his name. He tried to say something but it got caught in his throat, fearful of rejection.

"Is it about the invasion? I already know" Gaara was stunned.

"How?" Naruto just raised an eyebrow, getting the meaning behind it.

"That's a loaded question" Gaara just narrowed his eyes. Naruto sighed.

"Well if you'll take time to consider the loaded answer then" Naruto shrugged causing Gaara to narrow his eyes further.

"I'm from the future" Naruto said stoically. Gaara was about to refute until he saw the blonde's eyes, they were basically broken, but there was no lie in them. He decided to indulge.

"Prove it" Naruto stood thinking for a second, and then looked at the clock. The blond grinned.

"Right about now, Konahamaru should be playing ninja, and your brother will decide to pick on him, I should probably help the kid seeing as he's the Hokage's grandson." Naruto smiled innocently at Gaara, the redhead rolled his eyes getting the hint. The both left through the window, Gaara following Naruto.

As they got there the future Kazekage narrowed his eyes at Naruto, he was right, but this didn't seem to prove much. Sitting in the tree they watched and Naruto commented on things that they would all be like in the future, how they would win or lose the chuunin exams.

"Oh, Sasuke should show up right about now" they watched as duck-butt appeared before Kankuro acting all cool-like. Naruto huffed and rolled his eyes.

"You were interested in him you know" Naruto said looking at Gaara. The redhead looked at him incredulously. Naruto nearly fell out of the tree at Gaara's face.

"Not like that!" Gaara was relieved.

"It was probably my tenant" Gaara commented, Naruto nodded sagely, seeing the ever-increasing verbal-fight over Konahamaru, Naruto nudged Gaara.

"Activate Scary face" The redhead rolled his eyes fondly and huffed as he intercepted with his uncaring voice.

Sasuke was interested in Gaara but was ignored by the red-head making him frustrated. Sasuke nearly growled and was about to make a threat but was interrupted by a convenient blur jumping out of the tree.

"Panda-Chan!" Naruto tried to tackle Gaara but the red-head was still standing, Naruto pouted; he was like a wall. Naruto laughed as Temari and Kankuro looked terrified while Sasuke, Sakura and Konahamaru confused. Naruto was showing emotion, Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other meaningfully as they only noticed his emotions showed around their sensei.

"Hey Boss! Who's this guy?" Konahamaru yelled, Naruto ruffled the kid's hair.

"He's my friend Sabaku no Gaara" Naruto smiled and then had a bright idea.

"Gaara, you haven't tried Ichiraku ramen yet!" Naruto cried out as he pulled the red-head towards the stall leaving everyone very confused.

Naruto was bored, he already tried watching the clouds but it wasn't the same without Panda-chan, he was good at pointing out funny creatures. Since Gaara had joined his excursions Naruto had less time to think about impending futures and a certain silver-haired man, Naruto was sure the redhead could fill the whole in his heart he had been hurting from even though he knew that he would need to leave after the exams anyway. Naruto shook his head trying not to dwell on the thought; he decided a walk to his favourite secluded area was the best idea.

Kakashi was walking through the village, easily acting casual while reading his Icha-Icha, it was the best way a copy-nin like him could be underestimated. He was constantly taking in his surrounds, so he no doubt noticed a downtrodden blond haired genin making his way through. Kakashi jumped to the rooves and put his book away, he couldn't help it, and he hadn't seen his little genin in ages…well it was only a couple of days. The chuunin exams were tomorrow so he obviously had to ask about what Naruto was going to do. No he didn't.

Following the genin was easy, he was in deep thought no doubt, he was wondering what could be troubling his little blond.

Naruto was sitting by the pond with his feet in the water, watching the koi swim by, getting his feet tangled in weeds. This was the most peaceful he felt, at least he thought it was. Kakashi watched him, as he played with the lilies and splashed the water idly. He didn't really want to disrupt the peace but his genin was just too cute to ignore. Kakashi walked up silently, barely shuffling the grass.

"Naruto…" he called softly, the blond looked up at him and smiled. It was a broken smile. Kakashi could see that even without his sharingan.

"How are you?" Kakashi asked Naruto faltered, choking out a weak reply.

"Fine, Kakashi-sensei" Kakashi sighed and sat next to Naruto, Naruto was confused but Kakashi didn't explain, he just gave Naruto company.

"Naruto, can you tell me what's wrong?" Naruto looked up at the jonin, his eyes showed how much he wanted to tell him. Naruto wanted to tell him everything, everything that he had lost, everything that he had gained. Now he was left alone. Naruto looked back at the pond, the koi twisting around together, glistening in the sunlight; he listened to the peaceful sounds of nature. Naruto took a deep breath,

"I-… I'm lost" That was the best he could do to explain his situation. Kakashi tilted his head making his hair shift in the light.

"Well when one's lost they usually need someone to help them back" Naruto looked questioningly at him.

"Did I ever tell you about my eye?" Kakashi had but Naruto shook his head anyway.

"Well, it was my friend's eye and we were on a mission, me and him we were…opposites, he wanted to save our comrade but I wanted to complete the mission. He convinced me to save her" Kakashi smiled humourlessly behind his mask. "Long story short we saved her but he got crushed, he gave me his eye as a gift." Kakashi's voice turned hard. "My other comrade, I promised to keep her safe but she fell by my own hand" Naruto saw it, a long ago broken heart as he stared at the hand that killed Rin; he had forgotten that he had saved Kakashi all that long ago. Kakashi had been lost, they both are now. Naruto had to help him.

"I may not know the details, but you have more comrades than ever here, I hope that you trust in them as they do you, to protect those precious to you " Naruto looked down as he said that, he only hoped it was enough without going into details he shouldn't know.

Kakashi stood up; Naruto's heart was beating fast, his mind going to conclusions of rejection, being left alone. A hand fell onto golden hair making the blond look up.

"Naruto, you forget that you as well have comrades to protect, you can't abandon them before they do, a life of a shinobi is a delicate one, no matter how much we're told to just deal with the problems it doesn't mean we still don't feel it or that we don't need help" Kakashi hand was held out for him, Naruto took it carefully, being carefully pulled up, supported. He was supported again; the crumbling tower that was long abandoned was being pushed up.

"I won't abandon you anytime soon, nor will any other comrade. You may have your ups and downs with them but you also have an unfathomable comradery" Naruto looked away, before smiling with genuine happiness.

"I won't abandon anyone and that includes you Kashi-Sensei" Naruto said firmly while holding his heart. The wind picked up, tossing leaves around their heads, showing that by some deity the promise was held. Kakashi smiled.

The chuunin exams…what a bore, why was he here again? Naruto sighed as he twiddled with his pencil. This average chuunin level work was a bore, he looked down at the page and frowned, did he even want to do it? He would pass anyway.

The blonde sighed, 'How come I was put the furthest away from the window' he couldn't even cloud gaze. The blond brooded, looking for all the world bored. A shuffle beside him caught his attention, 'Aah, Hinata-chan, he felt sorry for the heiress as he wasn't that interested after all. He still had some affection for her because she didn't hate him when they were young, maybe they could be something like siblings' Naruto suddenly felt satisfied, and he would help her to reach her full potential.

"Hina-chan" he whispered, the hyuuga looked over worried when she saw his work, and she only had a few answers herself, so she couldn't help much.

"Hina-chan" he caught her attention again and shook his head as he smiled kindly. "Watch me" he whispered again. Naruto started scribbling all the answers down easily, yawning half way through. 'Well that was a lot of unneeded energy used but it would help Hinata'. Hinata quickly wrote down what he had, confused at how he got the answers at all but she trusted him.

Naruto slept through the rest of the test happily.

He was interrupted from his rest by a rambunctious-purple-haired-snake-lady.

"Look Ibiki you are slacking, this kid's even sleeping!" She said as she pointed at the blond, Naruto sighed as he rubbed his eyes.

"Ne, Ne why're you so loud crazy lady? I was sleeping here" he mumbled as he avoided a kunai absentmindedly. Naruto sat up no longer tired.

"What is it you want?" he said coldly at her, Naruto noticed the hesitance before she smiled sweetly; the other jonin no doubt saw it too.

"You've got guts gaki!" She smirked viciously making the students behind the blond cower. Naruto wasn't fazed, looking down at his own gut he looked back at her before casually saying.

"Well I should hope so; it wouldn't be very good if I had missing parts" This made Anko smirk; she threw another kunai at his head.

"I'll give you missing parts brat!" Naruto casually caught it with his finger through the hole. The blond yawned, officially declaring it a war with the next words,

"Can we move on this conversation's quite boring" he said while resting his head on his hand with his fingers out holding the kunai for everyone to see. It was slightly amusing to annoy the creepiest chick in Konoha.

He ended up outside training ground 44 within the next hour, listening to boring instructors and chasing around Anko's rivalry with barely any words, he could see it grating on her nerves.

Kakashi was amused to say the least, watching as his blond genin was trying to even consider doing the test at all and then answering them easily for the Hyuuga girl had shocked the other Jonin-sensei's. The blond had terrifyingly proceeded to contradict Anko's words, the other jonin were flabbergasted and were asking him questions left and right.

"What the hell did you do to the kid?" Asuma had asked as everyone anticipated the answer. Kakashi just shrugged, flipped his Icha-Icha page,

"Nothing really"

"-but he's so emotionless, and no one can believe the dead-last is smart enough to know those answers" Kurenai butted in. In that single moment an overwhelming emotion took over Kakashi.

"You have no right to question him after what he's been through, he is his own man, and he has most obviously hidden behind a mask so good the Hokage couldn't detect. You have no right to question my motives as his Sensei either" The cold sharp voice cut through the room, silencing everyone. The one-eyed gaze was the coldest and most heated emotion they had ever seen on the jonin. 'What is this emotion?' Kakashi thought, he was over the top. It confused the cyclops but he couldn't resist adding more on. Calming down, Kakashi eye-smiled at them all.

"And if I ever see you pestering my genin, I will personally make your life a nightmare" Kakashi tilted his head at that and everyone gulped. Kakashi looked down at his book that had crinkled in his hands, smoothing it out he proceeded to ignore everyone and the deafening silence in the room. Gai was the most silent and still, but he had the gleam in his eye only seen when looked at Lee, 'SUCH YOUTH! HE IS VERY MUCH PROTECTIVE OF HIS GENIN' Gai tried to avoid yelling and jumping around. It would not be the right moment, maybe at another time.

Naruto yawned and took in his surroundings,

"Oh it's starting?" Naruto said mildly as he looked at his teammates, they only rolled their eyes. Naruto huffed, 'How am I supposed to work with duck-butt and banshee?' Naruto sighed and got ready to just send his clone with them and follow from the tree-tops. Naruto could see a bit more from the tree tops, he watched as the same team that had their Earth scroll was beaten by Sasuke, Naruto's clone just looked all the world bored, as expected he didn't help either, not that the duck-kid needed it with his new sword and all. They proceeded on until they encounter the stupid snake, Naruto sighed, 'This is stupid, why a snake paedophile of all things?' Naruto sensed around and found a suspicious spot of concealed Chakra hidden in the treetops with him, concealing his own impossibly more; he pulled out a kunai swiftly.

Walking behind the source, he found Kabuto looking down at the fight between Sasuke and Oro-teme. Naruto winced, capture would be silly as he had no proof, injure would just make him aware for the future. Naruto was hesitating; he didn't want to kill so soon, he doesn't want to go back to being as swift at killing as Sasuke was at swinging his sword. If he hesitated too long Kabuto would be aware of him.

 **"Kit…"** Naruto paused asking for Kurama to go on, **"Do you want me to…?"** Naruto winced but quickly nodded, blocking himself out and letting Kurama take over. Kurama only took over enough to numb Naruto's actions from himself and use the limbs. It wasn't enough to make his chakra go through. Kurama gripped the kunai and silently sliced Kabuto's neck while holding a hand over his mouth. Kurama hid his body before letting Naruto back in.

Naruto sighed, he would need a journal soon. Cutting off his emotions for now; Naruto jumped down to the fight just as his other clone finally popped after it had joined.

Naruto interrupted Orochimaru before he could put the curse seal on the Uchiha, Orochimaru blocked with his own kunai. They stared off for a second when the Hebi noticed blood on Naruto's kunai and glanced up at the space he had jumped from. Naruto took the opening, and stabbed the snake in the torso. Sparks were flying as they moved swiftly through ferocious taijutsu patterns, catching each other with slices every now and again. Their bodies were like water as they fought, Sakura and Sasuke could hardly keep up.

Eventually Orochimaru's rage got the better of him and he jumped back to cast a fire jutsu. Naruto Kawarimi'd away and used Kage Buunshin to distract him as he prepared a small seal to stop the hebi from regurgitating himself anymore. It was annoying and he only hoped that it was complex enough to hinder him long enough to the last exam. The Buunshin were popping like flies because he used very little chakra on them, jumping into the fray Naruto pulled a much more durable clone to distract the hebi, he found that those tended to make foes think it was the real him, the clone pushed him back towards the real one using a small wind jutsu.

The real Naruto pulled the seal onto his palm and pushed it onto the back of the hebi's neck, just to annoy him so that he couldn't see what the seal did and that it would need outside help to undo.

"Fuuinjutsu: Teitai Seichō" Naruto intoned casually. The Hebi couldn't stop himself from falling into it as he was in the air. Growling Orochimaru turned to slice the blond, leaving a large gash in his side, barely wincing Naruto stabbed the teme in the stomach. The pedo-snake pulled back from the kunai as the wound was gushing out blood; he tried to regurgitate himself again only to feel an immense pain engulf his nerves on his neck. Gasping for air the snake folded over to hold his knees. Naruto watched him without emotion, he had won for now. Turning his back on the snake Naruto walked to his team mates casually,

"So are you guys hurt?" They looked at him incredulously at his own wounds.

"Aah don't worry, the kyuubi heals me" he said patting his stomach and ignoring the winces at mention to the kyuubi.

It was in an instance that both Sasuke and Sakura turned to see the speeding head of Orochimaru charging at Naruto.

"NARUTO!" Sakura yelled in alarm while Sasuke jumped in front the bite. The seal was transferred to Sasuke instead, Naruto caught a falling Sasuke in his arms and glared at the cackling and retreating Sannin who was still holding a bleeding stomach wound. Naruto huffed and pulled Sasuke into undergrowth with Sakura.

Huffing as he put Sasuke down, he quickly unfolded the seals he had, pulling out the counter to the cursed seal of Heaven. Sighing as this would take a while to leech the stupid mark off of him. He asked Sakura to get water and set up a campfire for the night.

Naruto copied the counter on with his brush very delicately, pausing every now and then when Sasuke strained and wobbled from pain. Naruto only hoped it would be fast enough before the power of it was tasted, leaving Sasuke wanting more. Putting his palm above the seal he concentrated his chakra and started pulling the already deeply imbedded strings of poison.

The sealing sequence lasted for hours; Naruto was pulling it from the nerves and had to stop it from reattaching to the chakra system. Sakura helped stabilise Sasuke before resting up and preparing for when he was done. Another hour of agonising concentration Naruto caught it all, wasting no time he snatch it up from the body and pulled away the seal, leaving bare skin. Naruto burned the ink and seal so that it wouldn't latch on to anything else.

"Sakura can you take care of him?" The girl barely got a nod out before the blond collapsed.

Sasuke sat up abruptly, panicking before adjusting to his surroundings, Naruto was sleeping next to him, but there were sounds of talking outside. Sasuke peeked through the undergrowth and saw nearly everything, it was unreal. Looking down at his hands he noticed every little detail. He listened to what was happening, it seemed lee was beaten, Sakura and Ino were held up and the rest were at their limits. Sasuke had heard enough talk, picking up his katana he ran out at a speed unknown; it was like everyone else was in slow motion. 'Is this the Sharingan?' Sasuke thought as he stabbed dosu, a formidable opponent in the shoulder's so that he couldn't use sound waves. Next was Zaku, he was overconfident and less smart than the first one, Zaku turned around to see Sasuke stabbing Dosu, throwing sound jutsu's at him stopped Sasuke in his tracks as he bent over nauseous.

Zaku pulled out a kunai ready to kill the Uchiha but before any of the genin could react a whistling shuriken surrounded in wind chakra hit Zaku in the chest, pushing him back startled. The impact was made to hinder him with a bloody injury but would not hit any vitals; they all looked to the attacker and got a cold glare in return. Naruto was standing just out of the growth but in its darkness still, making him look furious. The blonde's eyes turned to the remaining enemy making her shiver, the girl quickly left the scroll as a parting and ran away with her team mates.

Naruto sighed and joined them outside, everyone looked at him expectantly,

"Let's go" he said firmly to Sasuke and Sakura before walking towards the tower, not looking back to see if they were following.

'What a useless day'.

 **Sorry this took longer to put out, i was having trouble's but i'll be back on track soon i hope.**

 **Oh and thanks anon for your opinion, i did seriously consider about gaara going back too but the whole point is that Naru-chan's alone, but i guess there could also be some kind of bond that passed through? Idk**

 **Anyways Ja ne~**


	5. Chapter 5

The walk to the tower was quiet, even though they were on high alert, Sasuke was admiring his sharingan as it was currently at 2 tomoe each he could see so much and notice his surroundings like never before, in battle everything had seemed to slow down and he noticed he could see the foreshadow of a person's move from the slightest twitch, he thought about all the possibilities he had now.

Sakura was putting salve on her cuts, easily sorting her pockets out and checking her healing equipment. It was all just to keep from being tense from the atmosphere. Naruto was moody he had killed someone today, sure it was the kyuubi that did it but he had let the fox kill him, he had consented to it, he felt guilty and tried to swell the urge to shed a tear for the fallen guy, he hadn't done anything yet in this timeline but he was still conspiring with the snake. Kabuto was a major problem in the future as the older-Sasuke had so 'eloquently' explained, "Kabuto is dead, you can now stop the reanimations" and then promptly left to battle before any questions could catch up to him. Naruto would have been confused if he hadn't seen the slightly distracted look on his face and known that Itachi had left to find him before, the scuffs of battle that he noticed on him were also a clue to what kind of battle it was.

Naruto huffed faintly while marching towards the tower; he wanted out of here as soon as possible, he wanted out of this battle-hardened mask, he was just afraid that he wouldn't be able to take it off this time when he was faced with doing it, the mask wasn't complete anymore once it was broken by being put back in time now it would slip emotions through. If he pulled it off again he couldn't use it well anymore, he could keep it on and build it back together so that he wouldn't have to feel this silly grief. Right now he didn't like the feeling of sadness invading his heart, he wanted it gone.

Nearly nodding to himself he relaxed and pulled back the pieces of the mask slowly repairing the damage after the first breaks, he remembered now Naruto thought as he calmed down, the emotions stopped pushing as his thoughts were slowed from racing. Naruto's body relaxed from the tension and his heart stopped beating as fast, finally he cleared his face into a relaxed and aloof look. 'Yes, the first break, in the heat of battle that had seemed to wear on for days' Naruto sighed and quickly covered the emotion in reflex, after seeing his comrades die slowly and surely, he would feel his mask breaking but put up a front just to continue the battle as everyone counted on him.

'Kakashi saw through it though', Naruto smiled wistfully, he always gave Naruto encouragement when he saw him breaking in the midst of war. Naruto has had a couple masks in the past, he wondered if Kakashi saw through them too. 'Did he see the sad child who hid behind a cheerful knuckleheaded, happy-go-lucky mask?', 'What about the times he hid sadness with extreme anger, anger was better to show, he would show that he wasn't weak on the field and would angrily vow to save the rest?' Naruto could only guess at what the jonin saw.

Sasuke who had seen his tense form slowly relax was made more relaxed himself; the thought of an angry Naruto was a sort of scary one. He didn't know when he had started to be wary of the blonde, but the day where he told them of his burden had shown that Naruto had a keen intelligence hidden within him. He could be uncaring, intimidating and seemingly lost at the same time, Sasuke knew it was a mask, having a mask to hide his emotions as expected of an Uchiha taught him how to read other's. So far Naruto's was the hardest, the emotions and reactions he saw from the blond left him jumping through hoops to understand. First the blond was always happy and cheerful, pranking and trying to get attention, Sasuke pondered if that was also a mask, it had to be. The blond had said so himself that he was alone with this burden and that he was hated and attacked for something he hadn't know existed. It had to be a mask as it was too cheerful, he should have been a more quiet or an angry child. The mask had abruptly changed that day when Naruto stood watching them in ruffled black clothes, the emotions he could see were clearly painted, he was seen as uncaring for the most part but he had gotten annoyed quickly, he had been cold towards them. Sasuke hadn't spoken first when he saw the blond as he was too focused on watching the emotions, 'he is… broken?' was the first thought Sasuke had.

It was clear a mask was pulled together when Kakashi showed. That was just confusing, the blond had started showing emotions such as hope but also longing and hurt, the emotions were quickly steeled over though. Sasuke sighed, 'more masks' Naruto was a master in deception it seems. That day must have been planned, but it didn't make sense to drop the cheerful act only to pull on another mask.

Sasuke frowned 'This is a mess' were his only thoughts.

The walking was calm now; they weren't in much of a hurry after the battle. Naruto watched the leaves fall from trees and catch the light occasionally, he always felt calm in the most surreal of times. Well it was calm until he felt incoming chakra signatures, it was way too easy to sense them, and they stopped above them while Naruto pretended he didn't know. Naruto nearly shook his head in exasperation at the spike of chakra indicating a genjutsu. Naruto stopped abruptly causing the others to pause; he decided that some team hand-signals were needed soon so that he wouldn't have to be so outright. Naruto's chakra pulsed causing the genjutsu to fall, it was such a weak one too, frowning Naruto looked up at the enemy-nin.

It was probably the scariest thing having a frowning Naruto glare at you, Sakura was glad it wasn't her he was looking at. Sasuke cursed himself for not noticing the Genjutsu; no doubt Naruto had stuff hidden up his sleeve.

"Sasuke, Sakura do the honours?" Sasuke nodded as Sakura cracked her knuckles. Naruto was sort of surprised, she seemed to want to be in this fight, he could see the older-Sakura in her. Naruto watched as Sakura and Sasuke took them head on with kunai flying everywhere and fists, Naruto heard a yell from Sakura then a creaking, Naruto nearly showed shock on his face but stopped himself. Slowly a tree fell pulling down another genin with it. Sakura just stared at her own hand in shock, she was full of adrenaline and had no idea how she did that. Smiling ruefully, she felt that she wanted to prove herself, all she had was healing techniques and they were useful but it still left her on the back lines; this would ensure her power among the group. Sasuke finished off the other two as he tested his Sharingan. Naruto frowned at the Sharingan, he wasn't fond of it after seeing so much doujustu he had had enough of its power but he guessed it was useful for what it's worth.

As Sasuke and Sakura re-joined him Naruto nodded at Sakura assuring her to continue with the discovery.  
"Sasuke" the boy looked at him, "Try not to rely on your Sharingan, use it when necessary but there will be times that the sharingan become useless" Sasuke nodded, vowing to practise with and without it, he could even blindfold himself too. The team continued on their route and found themselves entering the tower at dusk, just catching the last rays of light it seemed. Naruto hummed in pleasure as he let Sakura and Sasuke summon Iruka. Iruka explained to them heaven and earth, it was a good philosophy no doubt, Sakura would need to seek strength and Sasuke knowledge, Naruto guessed he could use more of both.

Peace was one thing he always wanted with his emotions, calm and serenity instead of busy and annoying thoughts. Naruto sighed as he sat on top of the tower with his bare feet hanging over the side watching the last ray's go down and the first stars come out. The sky was an astounding thing, always changing; it's an emotional sky that's for sure, he liked the colours and the atmosphere each made.

Gaara watched the other jinchuuriki from across the roof as his blond hair danced in the wind. Ever since he had gotten here he was quiet and reserved, barely showing any emotion and by the hour his face was showing less. It concerned the future Kazekage, as he had expected to be jumped on and cheerfully talked to, not a quiet nod. Whatever this was Gaara was not happy about it, he couldn't determine if it was about the future or about something happening in the exams. Gaara decided that he probably should get some information; he was never good at consoling anyway.

The redhead left the blond alone in search for his two team mates, Sakura and Sasuke were studying and training in the grounds when he showed up. It was awkward talking to people civilly still but he assured himself that if he could kill he could ask for information calmly. Gaara walked up to them as they looked up and stopped what they were doing. They exchanged nods of greeting, the silence was akward for a second before the redhead sighed and decided to be blunt.

"What happened to Naruto?" Realisation struck the genin as they saw he was just concerned for their team mate. Sakura stood up and decided to explain what she knew. "A weird snake lady attacked us, Sasuke took her on for a bit but Naruto had a clone with us the whole time we think, as he had jumped down from the treetops later to engage her, so Sasuke pulled back." Sasuke cut in,

"They had a very tough battle of taijutsu, he matched her and each got hits in, Naruto did something to the teme that made him bend over in pain. Naruto had walked to us to ask if we were ok when he was attacked by the head of her, I jumped in the way of the bite and fell into unconsciousness." Sasuke looked at Sakura for the rest of the explanation as he still hadn't heard it yet, Sakura paused, this would be weird.

"The bite placed a curse seal onto Sasuke but it was aimed for Naruto, Naruto had the counter for it and pulled it off of Sasuke. It took hours, but he fell asleep after that and I was attacked by some oto-nin going for Sasuke, other Konoha-genin showed up to help until Sasuke helped take some out too." Sasuke was shocked he was under a curse-seal but nodded at Sakura to keep going as Gaara's thoughts raced for a conclusion.

"He woke up and interrupted with a lot of killing intent and intimidated everyone before telling us to get going, we were attacked by another group of nin but he let us take them out" Gaara stood there contemplating what he knew as well as this new information. He was from the future so he had done most of this already, he was obviously ready with the counter-seal, something must have happened between the fight and waking up. It was all a bit inconclusive, the redhead looked up and asked if there was anything else suspicious the two sat pondering before a thought came to Sasuke head;

"He seemed to somehow make her really mad just after he joined the fight when they paused to look at each other" Gaara might not have been a genius but he could see that something here was fishy. Gaara nodded in thanks and went off to consider the possibilities, maybe if he had just asked for more about his other quirks he would understand much sooner.

The prelims would be up soon, Naruto was indifferent to it, it should go the same as the first time as he hadn't changed much. Naruto would verse Kiba and then Neji; he wouldn't be failing these exams so he would do what's necessary to kiba to pass but with Neji… Naruto still desired to be a higher level that was for sure it would in fact help him in the long run too. The only problem was the incoming invasion, Gaara's father the Kazekage will die because of Orochimaru he would need to inform Gaara and then they would need to talk about his village shinobi being called off. The shinobi would no doubt be camping on their respective borders in a few weeks but if Gaara could stop his own village then the plan would be ruined.

Naruto's thoughts raced through strategies and outcomes, while he wasn't the best at planning he could do it if he actually tried, he would need to in this case as the outcome of the last invasion could have been a lot worse, say if Jiraiya wasn't there or Kimimaro were not sick at the time. Maybe he would need to get the Third in on this. He would be questioned if he did inform him but maybe Gaara could cover for him with his father before he died.

'Speak of the demon' Naruto thought before looking behind to see Gaara; it was midnight now, Naruto patted the spot next to him, offering a seat under the stars. Gaara sat down, already knowing there would be a long talk between the two. Naruto started,

"Your Father will die because of this invasion" Naruto said bluntly, he knew the redhead had no affection for the present Kazekage; Naruto continued while forming plans in his head,

"We need him before he dies, he could die from anywhere between the prelims and the next month, we need you and him to pull off the attack and join with Konoha secretly" Gaara nodded in understanding but still didn't like having to work with his 'father' the exact one who sent assassin's after him.

"If you can change your father's mind in whatever way, even to the point of telling him it's Orochimaru that he's conspiring with or that he'll die, it won't matter" Gaara's eye's widened at the mention of Orochimaru, was that who Naruto fought, with all the mentions of snakes it wouldn't be unlikely.

"Orochimaru's in the exams" Gaara stated, Naruto nodded.

"Well, Gaara if you can change your father's mind and have him ally with Konoha and inform all of his forces somehow before he dies we may get through this much better" Gaara nodded it was risky but he would do it, he already felt more attached to this village than his own anyway.

"The Third might die too, there are a lot of variables such as Kimimaru or Jiraiya" Naruto explain before the redhead could ask, "We need Jiraiya in the village so it can go smoother, the Hokage will probably call him back when we inform him and he doesn't show up for the exams. Kimimaru is a Kaguya, he had an illness at the time of the exam and couldn't participate, and he is a devastating Shinobi." Gaara was shocked a Kaguya was still alive? It is no surprise that Orochimaru got his hands on him. Naruto smiled much like sai,

"I didn't know you knew all these specific things such as Orochimaru or what a Kaguya was" Gaara shook his head, he had to stay awake somehow and reading was the best distraction as to stay awake for hours, while he did avoid boring books full of information somewhere strangely interesting, he had liked the ones that informed him of much destructive things that happened or in the Nations. Besides the best information for that was in the Kazekage's tower, he also used his infiltrations to see if his father was planning anything against him.

"I had to stay awake someway Naruto" Naruto nodded agreeably, but he trained until he fell asleep, he suddenly felt very sorry for Gaara, luckily Gaara didn't have to use his small amount of energy he had in combat otherwise he'd be sleeping all the time.

"Naruto did you face Orochimaru in the forest?" Naruto was surprised, how did he get this information? Did his team mates know of the snake-teme? Gaara just shook his head, knowing what he was thinking.

"They said 'snake lady' I connected it all since" Naruto sighed, understanding now. Naruto looked up at the stars; they were bright tonight, sparking occasionally.

Gaara was never an emotional person; he had barely any knowledge of it but he knew a mask when he saw one, he didn't need one himself but he could read them, after all he searched for the hatred on everyone's face since he was young, it was all too painfully easy to read their fear especially on his siblings. Speaking of, he still had not informed them that he could sleep again, but he would inform them along with his father in his plan to change their plans, his siblings would obey no matter what but he wondered how they would react.

The redhead looked over at a stargazing Naruto, all that this blond has done for him. Yes he would help him save this village and he would succeed no matter what.

 **Alright guys, this one had me stuck for a little while but here's a little more of Gaara. Oh and thanks sooo much for the reviews =^.^= they make every writer happy.**

 **Yes i have been planning ideas in my head for a while and my decision to not have the wave mission was a tough one buuut~ I still love Zabuza and Haku so look forward to that.**

 **Thanks Elizabeth! I am sorry if it seems i am rushing but the reason i left out wave was because people always dwell on the details and then lose inspiration after wave in like 5 chapters, so i changed it up a bit.**

 **I dont much like dwelling it seems :3**

 **Kakanaru is promised more next chapter, as it's gonna be a big one...maybe**

 **Ja ne! Jasper~**


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto stood in line, his back ramrod straight, such is when in military stature; he all but glared at the other contestants. He didn't want to do this but at least it wasn't to death, he wouldn't be able to kill a comrade no matter how much they thought of him at the moment. His seething aura landed on everyone's back making them shiver at all the killing intent aimed at them. Kakashi was worried, he couldn't help it as it was noticeable that he had changed during the last exam, for once Kakashi showed an outwardly sign of worry. Tapping his fingers against the bar and wobbling his leg, the Hokage and him met gazes both concerned, the KI leaking off of him could pause a low level jonin. Obviously Naruto was still holding back as he was just brooding not furious. Kakashi knew why he was angry here but he couldn't understand anything else since the blond came back. At this moment Gai bounced up to him, Gai might be loud and maybe a little insane…in his own way but he was still very observant especially of his rival.

"Kakashi, your genin will do fine, I'm sure they can win" even if he paraphrased it Kakashi knew that it was about Naruto and not the whole team. Kakashi nodded agreeably,

"Oh, Naruto will win most definitely, he just doesn't like to" Gai looked confused; 'he doesn't like to win?' Kakashi sighed,

"He doesn't like to fight and especially against comrades" he explained. Gai's face lit up like Chidori in the dark.

"SUCH YOUTH!" Gai said jumping up and punching the air, clapping Kakashi's back Gai said lower, "He will be a fine chuunin then, he has a great will of fire within him" Kakashi nodded.

The will of fire yes but he has a little trouble with emotions…That's when it hit Kakashi, Naruto doesn't like killing, thinking back to his promise Kakashi nearly fell over making Gai pause when he saw the other wobble. Now he was more worried, in a situation where the enemy will do anything one may have to resort to killing, the blond genin might have had to do that. Naruto was hiding his sadness, bottling it up. That was no good; he needed to have that sorrow out, with a journal at least. It was ironic that Kakashi was the one that understood that sadness couldn't be bottled up when he still held his, he just had had time to deal with it slowly.

Kakashi couldn't help but worry as Naruto joined him to watch the fights from above, putting a hand on his head made Naruto look at him emotionlessly, it nearly broke his heart.

"Come with me after?" he tried to say it as a statement but was fearful of rejection, he didn't know why but he didn't want his help to be frowned upon. Naruto nodded, distracted with his thoughts, Kakashi was touching his hair… shit, Naruto held his mask together with all his might; he wanted to curl up and cry but that was weakness, Kakashi was showing worry no matter how it was hidden Naruto could see it all. His mask would break again.

The fights started, Naruto tried to watch them for a distraction but only really paid attention on the ones that have a changed variable such as Sasuke, he used his training Katana, not as perfect or as sharp as the real deal but it served its purpose, Kakashi took note of Sasuke's Sharingan and nodded when the Uchiha had his opponent surrendering with his sword at their neck. Naruto watched as Sakura, punched Ino harder than Ino punched her, with her knew found power; all of her rage was poured into it from being weak for her team during the last exam. Ino was knocked out by flying across the room and smashing into the wall creating cracks. Kakashi's eyes widened, he does not want to be on the end of that, Naruto winced as well nearly reaching up to his cheek that was always subjected to her attacks.

It was Naruto's turn; Kakashi gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze and whispered in his ear,

"Killing is not always the option but it sometimes has to be, don't let it get you down yet" Naruto stiffened, no…he would put it aside for now but Kakashi implied he would need to review it later.

Kiba gulped but he put up a front for his team mates,

"Ha, this'll be easy c'mon Akamaru!" he yelled and jumped down to the floor. Naruto walked down, already planning his moves towards Kiba's jutsu's. Naruto faced Kiba waiting for the examiner to say go, he tensed as Kiba instantly charged at him, Naruto didn't move until the last minute, catching Kiba's hand in his as he moved to the side and tripped his back foot.

Kiba's face ate the dust as Akamaru raced towards Naruto, the blond moved out of the way and to the other side of the room, he pulled out ninja wire, and it was near invisible next to the grey stone floor.

Naruto created four clones as Kiba turned Akamaru into himself, both were charging at the blond-nin's with combined techniques, one of the clones pulled out a smoke bomb that smoked half of the arena Naruto raced around placing a web of ninja wire between him and the fights. His last clone popped, it wasn't like they weren't letting him. Soon the smoke cleared as two Kiba's glared at Naruto who was standing in front of his ninja wire. It was so obvious that Kiba stopped to create doton spikes, Naruto let him. The clone popped from the spike which was Kiba's aim but the spikes slowly slid up and cut one ninja wire making all the ninja wire zip around like elastic becoming undone, the sparks from hitting each other caused red fire to spread fast down the lines. It was so quick Kiba was distracted as the fire raced along unnoticeable ninja wire towards him.

Kiba jumped away in time as a small explosion racked his last spot. Kiba was panting heavily with Akamaru as Kiba beside him. They had unnecessarily used up their chakra on the clones with their Fang Passing Fang techniques, Kiba tried to look around in the dust of the explosion for the whiskered opponent but he never felt, heard or saw him coming from under the ground and that was saying something considering his heightened senses.

Pulling both Kiba's underground up to their heads with fingerless gloves and a fast and strong grip, much like a certain silver-haired nin that grinned from the stands, Naruto met them out of the ground this time with kunai at their cheeks not even exhausted.

The proctor called it as Naruto left never saying a word. Everyone was surprised, Sasuke couldn't believe he knew the same jutsu Kakashi used on him, he hated that jutsu but he guessed Kiba deserved it for the bragging.

Sakura inquired about the ninja wire trap, interested in how he set it off without being there,

"The ninja wire was stretched to its limits so when it snapped it created friction against itself when it tried to become its normal length again." Sakura nodded while Kakashi patted his back.

Gaara was next and Naruto nodded at him, acknowledging that he wouldn't hurt the green spandex genin. Gai was yelling loudly at Lee in encouragement. Lee and Gaara met in the middle, Lee posed with his thumb out,

"I hope you find me a worthy opponent!" Gaara nodded, nearly smirking as he was no doubt a worthy opponent.

The proctor started the battle, Lee charged while Gaara stood still waiting for Lee to go full power. The sand was instant as it swerved to defend from Lee's strong punches and kicks, Gaara knew that Lee could open the gates, thanks to Naruto even if he still doubted him about the future but he trusted the blonde, which was weird. Gaara would make him lose before that but he wanted him at his full potential first as Naruto had implied it was a struggle last time. Lee eventually got frustrated and dropped his weights; Gaara thought that weights like that might be useful item to use in the future and noted to ask Naruto about seals.

The dust flew up into the air and Gaara braced himself, Lee sped out and punched Gaara's sand as the redhead nearly missed, Gaara got into a stance, he wasn't well practiced because no one would spar with him but he knew his stances. It was an even more defensive fighting style, letting him dodge and block powerfully. Lee jumped off of walls leaving craters and crashed into the sand or air, he was increasing his speed every time eventually becoming a blur to outsiders. Gaara was watching intensely, he would need to practise reaction timing later as this was out of hand. The redhead ducked and finally got a hit in as he shoved Lee's leg away from above his head. Lee rolled and sprung back towards him, this time he got through punching Gaara in the stomach showing that he had an extra layer of defence.

Gaara's sand reattached to the area as Lee tried to look for an advantage as he watched Gaara's sand suddenly formed around his hands and backbone, creating claws and a tail that had Shukaku's cursed seal markings on them. Gaara was surprised but liked his newfound ability to control the power of Shukaku.

Lee stared as Gaara finally made a move with his arm creating sand bullets, Lee barely dodged and then charged aiming for his body that didn't have the layers of cursed sand, Gaara blocked with both his arms in an x, Lee pushed on nearly overwhelming the tanuki making him back up paces, suddenly Gaara's tail swung out summoning a whirlwind of sand that pushed the spandex-wearing genin back.

As Lee got up again and went in for a round-house kick he was stunned when the redhead went offensive and grabbed the leg instead and threw him to a wall. As always Lee would get up again, Gaara was still trying to figure out a way to win without hurting him; the redhead looked up at Naruto who tilted his head and body, closing his eyes as if he were being knocked out. Gaara saw that now, win by knockout, which was probably what the other genin was trying to do against him.

Lee and Gaara went at it again as Gaara blocked and dodged attacks from his opponent sand exploded everywhere, unfortunately he could see Lee getting used to his moves, it would need to be another surprise attack. The redhead waited for Lee to face him head -on with a punch that he pretended to x block to. Lee changed his course and went for a round punch to the head; Gaara grabbed the arm quickly and pulled Lee into his own clawed punch instead, a complete surprise for the genin.

That sent Lee across the room with Gaara racing towards him, Lee wasn't knocked out like he expected but he put his clawed hand to his neck, Lee waited for the proctor to call it because he wouldn't verbally surrender not to a potential rival. Gaara's sand dissolved quickly leaving a hand held out to Lee; the genin took and jumped about yelling about how cool he was and that he was a great fight.

"WOW, YOU WERE GREAT! LET'S SPAR AGAIN SOMETIME!" Lee yelled posing with his thumb out, Gaara twitched his lips in a smile and nodded making Lee beam.

As Lee and Gaara sorted themselves out to watch the rest of the matches Temari and Kankuro were beyond stunned, Gaara was serious in that match?! He had stances and he could make his sand into Shukaku's attributes?!

They raced up to him as he reached the top of the stairs to check that he wasn't really Shukaku in disguise, Gaara was mildly amused though he didn't show it. They were about question him but the redhead shook his head,

"Later, Nee-san, Aniki" he said with a finality, they both were too surprised at the honorifics to reply as he walked past. It seemed that Gaara had changed a lot.

As the last fight ended and Naruto got his opponent Neji for the finals, whom he glared at the most after he nearly killed Hinata his self-proclaimed sister; Kakashi pulled him away to a deserted room.

Naruto waited uncomfortably for him to speak and didn't make eye-contact; Kakashi sighed at the emotionless mask.

"Naruto, what happened?" Kakashi asked cautiously as he was afraid of being shut off.

"Nothing happened Kakashi-sensei" he said in a matter-of-factly tone. Kakashi nearly sighed again, once upon a time he would pull out his book and ignore it and left for the other to work out but this was Naruto, and Naruto was alone.

"I am sad that I wasn't there to help you Naruto. Maybe if I were you wouldn't have to make a decision. Maybe if I knew why you had to, I could help you, bear it with you or save you from that kill. Unfortunately I wasn't in that situation and I couldn't help you but I trust that your decision was one that helped others, one that saved people" Naruto finally looked into Kakashi's eyes, it was true Kakashi didn't know about the future but if he had he would have helped him bear it. It was also true that his decision would save people in the future, Kakashi trusted that his decision was right and if Naruto know that his sensei would have done the same thing to Kabuto if he knew the future meaning it had to be the right decision. Kakashi knelt down, noting that Naruto was still a small and innocent genin who had just killed,

"Naruto, a mindless killer doesn't need a good reason to kill, they just do. If you had a good reason to kill that person whether they were a threat or about to hurt a comrade it means that you did the right thing for them whether they know it or not" Kakashi said resolutely looking into Naruto's sky blue eyes, he watched them shimmer with unshed tears and a tiny quiver rack his bottom lip.

Kakashi was surprised once again when Naruto's hand shifted to hug him, accepting the hesitant hug from the blond he said,

"Another thing Naruto, you don't need to bottle up your emotions, sadness just means your human, and it means that you care. Most people won't care for a dead enemy but this means that you care for all life. I am proud of you as it is hard to do this, no matter if you're a shinobi or not it does not mean that you should be uncaring of death. Okay?" he asked as Naruto sobbed silently against his jacket.

Naruto's crying subsided a minute later, he pulled back thanking Kakashi. Kakashi tilted his head and hummed before smiling and pulling out a different book. The book was black and had a line of orange down the side of the front, on the spine was an Uzumaki swirl, he had it made and ready for a little while now but this had to be the perfect time to give it to the blond.

"Congratulations on passing the prelims Naruto" Naruto looked surprised, a gift? He didn't get gifts as a child but when he finally had friends and family to have celebrations with it was too late as a war had started, occupying all their time.

Naruto took the book slowly from his hands in awe; it was made for him too. Naruto's face lit up as he saw that the books cover and parchment was perfect for engraving into or painting seals on. Naruto jumped to hug Kakashi this time.

"Alright Naruto get cleaned up from the battle" Naruto nodded as they both walked out of the room together.

"There was an interesting technique you used during your fight, care to explain?" he questioned amusingly.

"Oh you know sensei, it's just a nifty trick I got it from some old-pervert" Naruto smiled teasingly; dodging a flick to the head Naruto ran off to his duties. Kakashi just shook his head fondly at the audacity of the blond.

"Hokage-sama" Kakashi notified him as he leapt through the window much to Sarutobi's chagrin.

"Kakashi, I trust you have talked to Naruto since the exam" Kakashi nodded,

"Hokage-sama he was closing himself off because he killed during the last exam" Sarutobi put his fingers to the bridge of his nose, sighing,

"Is he ok?" Kakashi continued.

"He was shaken up but he let out some tears finally when I told him that if he killed to save his comrade's that it meant he wasn't a ruthless killer, it assuaged me that he seemed genuinely concerned that he was a killer meaning he was doing it for good" Sarutobi nodded he was glad. Hopefully Naruto wouldn't hurt himself over it as much, which reminded him of another weeping shinobi; Sarutobi looked at the nin in front of him again. 'Maybe they could be good for each other' he thought. Sarutobi didn't know how right he was.

Gaara collected his stuff, he would be on a trip for a week and was taking his brother and sister with, and he was going to meet his father at the border as he had sent a letter forward.

Coming out of his room packed he ordered his siblings to pack for a short trip, they were questioning but agreed. They only noticed where they were going when Gaara shunshinned them both outside the walls with sand and started running towards Suna. They wanted to ask but Gaara promised to tell them when they were there, Temari and Kankuro could only sigh at their little brother, this had be the weirdest thing Gaara had done in a long time other than not killing anyone during his stay here, they remembered he came into the village bloodthirsty as ever but then the next day he had a blond hanging off of him. This only gave them more questions.

 **YAY KAKASHI IS BACK! :3**

 **Anyway thank you guys so much for the reviews, I'll be using some of your suggestions too. Unfortunately i can't credit since some of you are just guests. Yo i love reviews they critique and give me ideas and are so enlightening! Dont be afraid to ever review fanfic writers, they eat it up like ice-cream they love it and need it so much :3**

 **Love you guys! 3**

 **Ja ne~**


	7. Chapter 7

Gaara, Temari and Kankuro all made it to the border within 2 days, he found the small encampment that would no doubt grow as the month went on, these were the starting preparations to support a whole army. Gaara needed to stop this now, searching for his 'o-royal majesty's' tent that could be seen a mile away as it stood out from the rest, he spotted it and scowled ready to face his dear and loving father.

Walking into the tent first without announcement with his siblings behind him, Gaara watched as his father looked up annoyed at any unwanted guests that barged in, he stood when he saw Gaara ready for a talk, it was probably about the invasion, hopefully there were no interruptions in the plans. Gesturing for Gaara and his siblings to sit down they took it however hesitantly.

"Gaara, what is it you called me for?" Gaara steeled himself; he would resolve an outcome that meant Konoha was safe from Suna.

"Call off your part in the Invasion" The Kazekage narrowed his eyes but Gaara just stared back.

"You can't possibly be serious? You wanted bloodshed and our nation is in strife if we take Konohagakure with Oto we will no longer have any problems"

"You are mistaken, they have a jinchuuriki too" The Kazekage just shook his head

"And you're scared of him?" The Kazekage moved to stand up and dismiss them from his temporary office.

"No, he saved me from Shukaku, he no longer controls me" Everyone looked at him incredulously all asking how.

"I can sleep now as he altered the seal, I can control its power's in more ways" He said dispassionately but was nearly glaring at the Kazekage.

Temari spoke up this time, "So you used its claws and tail in the exam?" Gaara nodded slightly as sand formed around his hands and tailbone again, this time though he had black triangled ears. It seemed the more he developed it the more he could control; the redhead could hear everything from the other tents such as plans and orders being yelled, the slow breathing of sleep or the ragged breaths of people training. He was in awe, he wondered if Naruto could do this.

The Kazekage stepped back when he saw Shukaku's markings, Temari and Kankuro leaned forward interested in their brother's new powers.

"Call off the attack, this isn't worth the resources, though I have to wonder if you knew who you were making deals with" The redhead paused,

"Did you know that you were conspiring with Orochimaru?" The Kazekage looked unsurprised at that,

"I see" Gaara's sand dissolved off of him he needed to wrap this up and get back to Konoha to train he had a certain spandex wearing genin in mind,

"Know that I will not participate in this invasion against a place that has all but helped me, if you must invade I will only be fighting against Oto-nin's unless Suna-nin attack my comrades but if you ally yourself with the Hokage I will join you at the meeting. Maybe your forces won't have to participate at all or they can defend Konoha with me, just know that I feel more welcome there than I have ever been here" Gaara said in his would-be kage voice resolutely as he glared at his father.

The Kazekage knew that not having Gaara in his plans will hurt their outcome, it seemed he had no choice, if he didn't participate in this chance the nation would still be in strife and out of resources very soon and without Gaara and most likely Temari and Kankuro too he would be left without good shinobi on the battle-field. He had no choice, as Gaara started to leave he called out,

"Fine! I will ally myself with Konoha, this had better work out" the threat was unsaid but Gaara didn't really care.

"Get ready to travel then." Gaara said before leaving the tent with Temari and Kankuro and going to sit in the shade of another tent.

"Gaara, are you fine now?" Gaara nodded before beginning to explain it all,

"Naruto the blond whiskered genin is the nine-tailed fox's host, he trusted me and I trusted him to fix my seal. He explained all of what it does and I couldn't detect any lies." He said before they could protest about trusting random people.

"Does that mean you made a friend?" Kankuro asked before Temari could elbow him for such an insensitive question. Luckily Gaara wasn't very sensitive; the redhead tilted his head in thought before twitching a tiny smile,

"Yeah"

Naruto was sitting by the memorial stone staring into space at the unmarked names around the others, he could see all their names in order, Sarutobi, Asuma, Jiraiya, Neji, Kiba, Tsunade, Hinata… It went on and on even to the point where the most recent ones at the time still hadn't been marked down. He never wanted to see the real thing.

Kakashi was right he couldn't hold the sorrow back, what if it ruined him a crucial moment, he needed to let it out… and so he dared, he looked at the lost names and waited for the waterworks clutching his journal to his chest, Naruto thought of the one thing that ruined him the most and let it all out.

Memories flashed in his mind as the real scenery in front of him became blurry, his brain brought up images of seas of corpses, of lifeless eye's that stared into nothingness, of red coating once shiny silver hair, of broken voices and last words that he always had to hear. The last words that always bore down on him as he heard their last breaths and saw their spark die. Why was he always the one holding his dying comrade's? Naruto suffered in silent sobbing, his breath hitching as he inhaled shakily. How could he stand up after all this, how does one move on. His sobbing slowed as he noticed a shadow hanging over him, he sniffed and slowly turned around.

Naruto's eyes hardened when he saw who it was, the boy had hurt him in the future, leaving then putting a Chidori though his chest, his allegiance was everywhere. Naruto hadn't known if he still wanted to destroy the leaf village or become it's Hokage in the end but he couldn't really blame the future Sasuke's actions on this one's, it had already changed too much anyway.

"What do you want?" Naruto asked dejectedly. He half expected this Sasuke to ridicule him, tell him he was weak, usually it would inadvertently make Naruto angry and competitive. This time Naruto didn't feel motivated towards a rivalry with him. Sasuke tilted his head at Naruto before slowly answering him,

"You were right" he stated bluntly, Naruto looked at him teary eyed and questioning.

"The…massacre it had several meanings behind it" Naruto slowly nodded knowing that almost every incident had reasons behind them and it was usually politics. Naruto's tears started to dried up from the conversation forgetting the sorrow he had been feeling.

"What will you do?" Naruto asked. Sasuke paused, he vowed to help his brother and save the village from any future threats, while he still disliked that his family were all dead by his brother's hands he wouldn't get revenge, no he wanted his brother back.

"Do what my brother would have wanted" Sasuke said determined, "I'll protect this village" he said in finality. Naruto smirked and then started laughing; dumbstruck Sasuke glanced at him questioningly. Naruto held his stomach as he calmed,

"Sorry but we're just Genin" pausing Naruto looked at the training ground before them; "To protect this village we must get stronger" Sasuke looked at the grounds too and smirked. Together they got up and walked to the field, Sasuke turned to Naruto and nodded before getting into his stance.

With the drop of a leaf before them, they charged at each other, Sasuke with a swiftness that would grow into a fluid Kata of an art piece, Sasuke weaved and swirled around Naruto's brash looking Taijutsu form. While it may have looked bad Sasuke soon realised it was quite devastating, he could tell it was well practiced to move in the most unpredicted of ways, catching him in the most accurate moments with solid and fast jabs. The session went on for half an hour with each trying to get leverage over the other, the sound of flesh and bones being hit or broken occupied the area while Sasuke got a few lucky jabs in.

The fight ended with Naruto knocking Sasuke in the gut making him keel over, they were both breathing heavily, though Sasuke looked up and saw that Naruto was barely sweating. Naruto held his hand out for a shake, Sasuke accepted it, and the blond gave a small grin in return.

"I will protect this village too" Naruto vowed as he always had before. Sasuke pulled himself upright and looked at the memorial stone where Naruto had been crying before.

"We've both lost people" he said as a fact even if he didn't know who Naruto lost, he could see that his sorrow was not just from being alone. Naruto huffed embarrassed that his old rival saw that, it was an emotional moment and also a weakness. Naruto frowned at this which Sasuke noticed;

"I cried too, even if I tried not to because a Shinobi shouldn't" Sasuke said still staring at the stone subconsciously finding the plethora of Uchiha names engraved that he had mourned over many times.

Naruto shifted forward shuffling the grass; Sasuke looked over to the blond that now stood next to him. The blond shook his head slightly amused,

"A shinobi doesn't need to be uncaring of death, crying just makes us human" the blond recited the words he'd only heard a day ago. Sasuke considered it and nodded in agreement.

"I have mourned for them but now I can continue their journey" Naruto continued, he referred to his future comrades but Sasuke wouldn't know. Placing the hand over his heart Naruto looked up as Sasuke looked at him curiously. This was the most open Naruto had been towards him since the bell test day. Analysing his comrade over these weeks just gave him a headache so he had decided a more forward approach was needed. Naruto and he were alike; he was surprised that he hoped that his version of cheering up from the sorrow worked for Naruto since training had always helped him. It had been a long shot but it was worth it as he finally got to see Naruto's fighting style.

"Thanks, by the way" Naruto's face changed from wistful to confused as he looked down.

"The training, it pointed out the kinks in my defence" the blond quickly understood where this was going but he decided that denying him would be a backtrack in their new bond.

"Anytime" he said surprising Sasuke ever more.

"No" Kakashi said, trying to finalise that he would not agree to this silly rule. He was certainly tempted to pull out his Icha-Icha and ignore them since he barely had any respect for these old-bastards anyway. How dare they try to part him with his other genin just to train some prodigy obviously they hadn't seen Naruto in the prelims, he could bet a thousand yen that they probably watched Sasuke's and left. It all made him irrationally angry, he couldn't abandon them but he had sickly feeling in his stomach that this would go against his will no matter how hard he tried.

"You have to train the last Uchiha for his last exam because you are the only one left with a Sharingan" Kakashi nearly twitched. He wanted to punch something so bad, specifically some certain council members conveniently sitting right in front of him.

"I have other Genin who have made it to the last exam and they shall not be exempted because of a prodigy's sake" he tried again.

"A prodigy should be at their full potential especially against that Ichibi. We saw what he was capable of and it is a danger to our last Uchiha as he may lose control and kill him" It was the dumbest excuse the silver-haired man had ever heard and that was coming from him. The redhead looked like he had complete control of the sand-demon in those prelims. The copy-nin was about to comment about the poor excuse when the Third Hokage shook his head at him; the jonin huffed in frustration before actually pulling out his book this time much to the amusement of Sarutobi.

"Fine, but only on the basis that my other genin have a quality substitute" Kakashi relented; he was holding his book so tight as he tried to contain his glare. This would disappoint Naruto greatly and he didn't want to see that look on his face especially if it's caused by him.

Saurtobi nodded easily thinking of a certain sage that had joined the meeting in the shade of a corner earlier on.

"Alright, I will organise this, Kakashi you have permission to take Sasuke out of the village with you if needed. Dismissed." Kakashi took the slip angrily and shunshinned out leaving an abnormal amount of leaves on the ground as the council left. The Hokage sighed, he hadn't believed that the council called a meeting of the Uchiha's training at first but it seemed they suspected Kakashi, whether it was because of Kakashi's previously uncaring personality towards teaching or the more nurturing nature towards Naruto he did not know.

"You're aging Sensei" Jiraiya poked fun at him as he easily stepped out of the shadows.

"Indeed, I should have retired ages ago but have no suitable protégé yet" Sarutobi lit his pipe trying to take away his headache, unfortunately after years of him using it his body had become slightly immune. The toad-sage looked away embarrassed that his team had left his teacher in that position; it was just that he wasn't cut out for the role.

"Don't worry about it Jiraiya even if I see all the potential to be a Hokage in you and Tsunade I could never force the job upon you" The sage nodded wearily before sitting down in front of him.

"What was all that about with Kakashi and the council, Sensei?" Sarutobi chuckled.

"Our resident copy-cat does not appreciate being away from his genin or more specifically Naruto-kun." Jiraiya was now confused, last time he had heard that Kakashi didn't even want to be a Sensei and he had Naruto as a student? This was interesting.

"Why is that Sensei?" The third inhaled from the pipe before breathing out a cloud in exasperation; 'Where to start' his thoughts copying a similar past scenario.

"Well, I'll start from the beginning; it was bell test day…"

 _CRASH_

'Another one down' Sakura was training in her strength but was unsure what else to train in against a sound user. Frustrated she punched another tree, it creaked and promptly fell, stirring up the fallen leaves around her. She was slowly building up her stamina, strength and speed but I didn't seem to be working well.

"Sakura" the girl nearly jumped out of her skin at her name, looking across the small clearing she made saw Kakashi standing there casually, reading his book.

"Sensei?" she acknowledged, Kakashi put his Icha-Icha away for once and walking up to her.

"It seems you have a plethora of strength, it's a good idea to train that but what about Dosu's jutsu's?" Kakashi asked. Sakura sighed

"I am unsure Sensei, right now the only hope I have is smashing his arm devices to bits but I would need a distraction" The silver-haired-nin nodded in agreement

"I'm sure you can figure it out Sakura because your smart but for now I need to advise you to eat more" Seeing her start to protest, Kakashi held up his hand to stop her, "Sakura being a ninja is a serious thing and I'm glad you've reconsidered your training regime but you can't fight on an empty stomach, you'll have less energy to fight in a tough situation then, didn't you feel the exhaustion during the bell test when you had no breakfast at all?" Sakura looked down, she had wanted to look good for Sasuke but she could feel her own weakness sometimes and her stomach always protested painfully at any mention of food.

Suddenly Sakura got images of herself in a future battle as she became skin and bone from losing all her energy so fast, she became an unmoveable skeleton on the ground which then turned into dust that flew away in the wind. Shivers crawled down her spine at seeing that and she immediately promised to eat full meals, even if it was a lot of food she could still eat the healthier stuff.

"Alright Kakashi Sensei" Sakura promised, Kakashi eye-smiled innocently; he didn't notice any genjutsu being used…nope not at all.

"Now that that's settled we should go find Naruto and Sasuke for a meeting, I have something important to tell you" Sakura nodded and followed Kakashi to their usual training ground. Along the way she noticed her Sensei's tenseness and that he was holding his book incredibly firm, the atmosphere around her Sensei easily gave them a path between the villagers.

Sakura and Kakashi stopped at the edge of the clearing where Sasuke and Naruto were talking, Kakashi caught Sakura's arm before she could walk any further; it seems they arrived at a moving moment, at least he saw Naruto was attempting to bond with his team mates this time. Sakura was quiet as Kakashi observed them when Naruto and Sasuke seemed to be done and were looking at the memorial stone Kakashi finally walked up to them.

"Yo" he eye-smiled at them as Sakura waved at them. Naruto and Sasuke instantly saw the tenseness around their Sensei and Sakura's nervousness. Standing together they waited for him to say something. Sighing and putting his book away Kakashi clenched his fist;

"It seems that the council has interfered with my training regime this month" Naruto quickly realised what was going on and looked away; it still hurt being left behind.

"I would never have wanted to leave you now, Sakura, Naruto as you have made me proud to all be in the last round and each of you have tough opponents unfortunately I can't go against the word of the council and train you this month but that doesn't mean I can't still help you" Kakashi pulled out the training regime's that he had ready for them, giving the scrolls both to Naruto and Sakura leaving a confused Sasuke.

"What about me?" he asked,

"The council wants me to give you specialised training and only for you" Sasuke frowned,

"They can't do that!" he yelled heatedly, Kakashi shook his head in sadness making Sasuke's anger simmer down,

"Why me?" Kakashi sighed, Sakura leaned forward interested while Naruto looked down.

"I have the sharingan and apparently it's reason enough to abandon my other Genin" Kakashi said as he pointed to the covered eye. Sasuke dwelled on knowledge that he had gained but looked at Naruto in concern, he looked downtrodden; Sasuke knew that Naruto and Kakashi-sensei had some sort of bond and he didn't want to hurt it.

"Naruto, you better train hard so that when I come back we can protect this village together, otherwise you'll be left behind" Sasuke said teasingly but was hidden behind arrogance, Naruto smirked understanding it,

"You wish I'll be the one protecting this village while you're left behind in the dust" Naruto said defiantly and then looked at Sakura.

"You too Sakura, we can all work hard to help the leaf" Sakura's eyes were wide before a small smile appeared on her face and she nodded determined.

 **Thanks for the reviews on the last chap guys! btw i've started my last year of school now and i am unsure how it will affect the story, and I'm sorry if it delays stuff, i give you permission to slap me if i leave this story!**

 **Thank you Akemi Uchiha-Hatake** **for the review i'm glad you like story and hugs are always appreciated :3**

 **Thanks 'tomb raider and walking dead' (Nice taste xD) for the review and i hadn't really planned on Kakashi knowing about Naruto being from the future at all, but who knows? me, yes i do :p**

 **Oh btw, if your looking for amazing Naruto Amv's (and other anime one's) try the Blue flash on youtube. Yes unfortunately he has gotten copyright strikes so he's just started a new channel for his GIANT amount of followers called Blue flash2, xD thank kami its simple :P**

 **Anyway Ja ne~**


	8. Chapter 8

Naruto wasn't sure what was worse being left behind by Kakashi for Sasuke in training or…this. He had no words for this as both Naruto and Sakura looked at their temporary sensei, Naruto looked at her blandly and pointed at her shit-eating grin,

"Crazy lady. We got the crazy lady." Naruto sighed and gave up at trying to understand how Kakashi even convinced her to take on a bunch of brats, it probably involved a lot of dango and the consent to ruin a certain blond-haired kid. Not that Naruto minded, it would be fun but he wouldn't be left alone for a single second.

"Alright gaki's I'm your new Jonin Sensei, first lesson is dodging!" She yelled out sadistically and instantly started throwing kunai, Naruto and Sakura reacted by jumping in trees, both looked at each other fearful of how they would survive as a Fuma Shuriken grazed their heads. They both ran into the opposite directions making the jonin smirk and create a couple of shadow clones to torture both.

Naruto concluded that Anko was conspiring with Tenten, because the amount of unique weapons being thrown at him was not natural. The blond gritted his teeth; every time he blocked something successfully another weapon would scrape him, every time he dodged there was a trap waiting for him.

A fire trap blasted into his face as he dodge two Fuma shuriken, Naruto snarled. How did she place all these traps before and predict that he would fall into them? Naruto pulled up his kunai again to block some fast kunai, only to be stuck in the back by another kunai. Growling Naruto wrenched it out of his back and looked down at an inconspicuous ninja wire under his foot.

The blond rolled his shoulders and proceeded to make five shadow clones only for them to be whipped out within second. Anko knew about his troublesome clones and she wouldn't let him get the upper hand yet. The real Anko looked into the direction of the other two clones and saw a tree fall in the distance, smirking as Sakura tried to get the upper hand finally as well. Anko won't let them get the upper hand until they worked as a team.

Anko laughed loudly as Naruto set off every one of her traps she had planted. 'Time to up the ante' Anko thought sadistically as she pulled out smoke and paper bombs and grinned from the trees at the blond.

Sakura ran to a clearing over from her team mate, being chased around by a purple haired jonin was not the idea of training she had in mind. Parrying two shuriken with her kunai she turned in the clearing to see Katana's and Fuma flying towards her, Sakura nearly froze but rolled out of the way just in time…Only to fall onto a net trap, Sakura struggled a bit before freezing when she heard the typical whizzing of ninja weapons. Rushing she cut out of the ropes entangling her and bit the dust, Sakura sat up and rubbed her sore face; looking up she saw that the ropes above her were torn to shreds. Gulping the kunoichi got up in a ready position with her kunai, she observed the area around her and saw the small wires all over the fields and frowned. Jumping to another spot in the clearing with no wires Sakura deflected some kunai only to get scraped in the leg by shuriken. Sakura desperately tried to dodge all the random weapons while keeping her eye on the surrounding area; she preferred to dodge than chance to block the attacks.

Sakura huffed as another kunai scraped her arm, she was panting heavily from exertion, she easily eyed the tree closest to her to lean on, only barely moving out of the way of weapons and aiming all her dodges towards the trees as it was too open in the clearing to protect herself. When she got there she spied a clone in it and her anger seemed to boil up quickly at the sight of her jonin's grinning face. Remembering the embarrassing face plant, Sakura focused her chakra into a fist and punched the tree,

"CHA!" Sakura yelled for emphasis of her anger, the clones eye's went wide as the tree wobbled and leaves fell off from the abrupt shake, the clone jumped onto another tree as the previous one crashed down behind her. Sakura seethed as she stood there, gathering her anger for adrenalin and energy, she held her fist up with a spark in her eye. Anko smiled, the girl had potential but she also needed a lot of work. Anko laughed and pulled out her own specialised Chokuto and jumped towards the smaller kunoichi to engage her in a spar.

"You're both awful" Anko concluded after a tense silence, both the genin were glaring at her and nursing their injuries. Sakura healing her own while Naruto waited for the kyuubi to mend all his limbs back together, both grumbled at the response. Anko tilted her head to the side;

"Naruto you're awful because you take too much hits and don't observe your own surroundings." Naruto shuffled his aching legs at this, about ready to throw something at the jonin. Anko turned to Sakura,

"You at least noticed the rest of the traps after you got caught in the first one, but your speed is dreadful and you dodge instead of use the appropriate moments to block. Also your strength is a surprising aspect and a real treat for you, even though your stamina is horrific" Anko nodded to herself in a job well done as Sakura glared at her.

"Meet here tomorrow, eat and sleep well because this will be all we do until I've deemed that you've improved" Anko smirked and poofed away. Sakura and Naruto sat there as their injuries wouldn't allow them to move yet; both sighed simultaneously and looked at each other for hope. This is going to be hell.

Gaara smiled as he saw the gates of the leaf village come into view, Temari and Kankuro flanking him on his sides both sighed at the sight, tired from all the non-stop travel. The convoy stopped at the gates, with his father surrounded by nin, it intimidated the poor village guards, Izumo and Kotetsu watched wide-eyed as Gaara walked up to them with a note from the Hokage for a personal meeting.

Izumo scanned it before nodding and calling over another chuunin to escort them all to the tower, Gaara nodded in respect and went first after the escort. He was eager to talk and wanted the best outcome for both villages. Kankuro and Temari belatedly walked behind him and dragged their feet, Gaara noticing it now that he cared more,

"You two should go rest at our accommodation, it's been a long journey after all" Gaara's care shocked them before they smiled happily and thanked him before leaving. Gaara sighed as he looked around the village, he felt his father staring at the back of his head, no doubt trying to figure out his change.

Their escort stopped in front of the Hokage's doors, leaving them alone to wait for an approval. The Anbu popped his head out and invited them, breaking an unknown staring contest between the Kazekage and his son, the Kazekage finally decided that Gaara really was going through with the plan and gave in, making Gaara put his chin higher and enter before the Kazekage. The Kazekage had a brief lapse of pause as he saw a hallucination of an older, stronger Gaara as the Kazekage. Gaara's father couldn't deny that his son always had the qualities of a leader, it was just covered by uncaring and bloodlust. It wasn't the best leadership before but now… now Gaara is a great Kage in the making.

Finally following after his son he nodded to the Hokage in respect but they didn't bow to each other whereas Gaara and the others did.

"Kazekage-san, Gaara, welcome, how are you?" Sarutobi exchanged pleasantries before any serious talk happened, he didn't actually know what the meeting was about but he noticed it was urgent.

"Good thank you Hokage-san, but we are here on business unfortunately and I have been unable to see the sights yet" The Kazekage said while sitting down, Gaara choosing to stand and watch the village life out the window until they were done with the boring Kage jabs, pleasantries and hidden threats.

Gaara came back from his spaced-out state to his name.

"Gaara has convinced me to change some last minute details and exchange information as well as plans" The third narrowed his eyes while Gaara looked around to see if there was a privacy seal up, the Third complied before waiting for an explanation. Gaara took the stand as he looked around the office seemingly bored even though he was trading sensitive information.

"Put bluntly, there is a planned attack against Konohagakure in the last part of the Chuunin exams" Sarutobi's eye's widened and knuckles tensed, Gaara could feel the Anbu and someone-else-not-quite-Anbu all tense in their corners. Gaara sighed,

"Oto and Suna had planned an attack on the village and you for the last exam, mainly because the wind daimyo and Suna need financial support we are in a depression, Konoha have taken our ninjas jobs and we don't have much resources that help us in the desert unless we form a trade" Sarutobi listened to the story tensely as the Kazekage's face became perfectly blank, the Third read regret in his eyes though.

"I don't know much about the aftermath plans but I do know that I was a key role in the plan and that the leader of Oto is Orochimaru" Sarutobi nearly facepalmed, this was awful. He only wondered why the plans were changed.

"You convinced the Kazekage-san otherwise?" The third said dubiously, Gaara nodded before explaining casually

"I used to have a bloodthirsty and insane tanuki talking in my head, the seal was placed horribly and I don't know what I would've done to Konoha otherwise, but I'm in control now and I've got my own thoughts." Sarutobi raised an eyebrow; it was true that Gaara had stopped leaking killing intent everywhere and was slightly nicer to others but what changed him?

"You say that you've changed and you imply that the seal was fixed, do you know how?" at this Gaara actually gave a small whimsical smile, looking to the Yondaime's photo on the wall Gaara confirmed Hiruzen's suspicions with his light words;

"I met a certain blond, Hokage-sama" Gaara looked towards a smiling Hiruzen resolutely and confessed his thoughts about the invasion in front of his father.

"Naruto is my first friend and it would be betrayal to go behind his back in this, I will not participate in the invasion negatively, if anything I will be on the frontlines with Naruto" Gaara said proudly while the Kazekage grumbled about certain siblings being there too.

The Hokage smiled proudly for Gaara, he has turned his life around now and Naruto has changed yet another person's life. Sighing the Kazekage spoke up,

"I would like to pledge well-made alliances with you and either fight with you against Oto or not be involved at all, we have limited resources Hokage-san" The third nodded and Gaara instantly dozed off from such boring negotiations after his passionate speech, it was passionate to him anyway…

Eventually the plans were set and the Kazekage tensely gave every detail he knew about the invasion. Gaara warned the Hokage on the way out that his father might be replaced; which only confused Hiruzen at the time.

"Panda-chan!" Gaara heard the voice permeate his ear just as he stepped out of the building, 'Well that was quick' Gaara thought as he let Naruto hang around his neck. The Kazekage behind him looked confused, slightly frightened and suddenly understanding when he saw the resemblance to the picture in the office.

"Naruto, how have you been?" Naruto gave a foxy grin and let go of the redhead.

"Great! Although I've got a new sensei for a while" Naruto winced as he unconsciously felt a particularly nasty but healed wound on his leg. Gaara scanned the blond up and down before moving aside to introduce Naruto,

"Naruto this is the Yondaime Kazekage, my father" Gaara said dispassionately while Naruto smiled slightly and bowed to the Kazekage who just gave a slight nod in return,

"Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meet you Kazekage-sama" he said politely, the sand fourth observed him before saying surprising words that stopped Naruto in his tracks.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Thank you for helping my son" The blond instantly blushed and scratched his whiskered cheek while puttering out a small response,

"It w-was no problem really…" Gaara only rolled his eyes at the conversation and waited for his father to leave for his accommodation.

"I will leave you two alone and prepare for the finals" Naruto bowed again as the Kazekage left.

"Hey, hey Gaara what happened?" Naruto asked curiously as he watched the Kazekage walk away.

"I convinced him to change his mind" Naruto gave a small smile

"Thanks Gaara, you're a great brother" Naruto said quietly slightly blushing at what he'd just said, Gaara's teal eyes widened imperceptibly before a soft expression took over surprise Gaara gave a small smile in response as he followed Naruto through the village. As they passed a sauna Naruto paused in his steps, bumping Gaara out of his musings, the redhead looked questioningly at the blond in front of him who smirked cheekily; the Tanuki just narrowed his eyes as the blond held a finger to his lips for silence. Naruto instantly started sneaking around the corner like an amateur ninja or child with exaggeration in his steps, Gaara just followed with his arms crossed with a normal but silent walk. They both turned the corner to see a old-white-haired man peeking into the woman's bath's, Naruto turned to him and grinned and counted down from three on his fingers silently, only making gaara raise an eyebrow and wait. Instantly Naruto yelled out to the sky

"HEY YOU OLD PERVERT, STOP PEEKING ON THE WOMEN!" Jiraiya turned his head so fast he got whiplash, his eyes were wide and then he trembled when he heard some crashes in side and a stampede. Frozen with fear the Toad-Sannin could only watch as the women who he'd been peeking on before ran out in towels.

"WHERE IS HE?!" They all yelled at once, Naruto only pointed an accursed finger at the Toad's face and they all turned at once to run at him. Naruto grinned like a fox catching dinner, 'that was payback for leaving me, Ero-sennin', The redhead despite himself tried to suppress a smile that only made him look constipated, Naruto laughed at him making Gaara give a small chuckle.

After a great beating that left Jiraiya as flat as a pancake on the floor Naruto bowed to the still irritated Women as they went back to their bathing. Naruto then walked up to a recovering Jiraiya and held his hand out,

"C'mon I'll give you a bowl of ramen on the house" The toad grumbled but grudgingly accepted the hand which Naruto smiled at, with that Naruto dragged his two companions to Ichiraku's.

Jiraiya observed the blond genin, there was so much resemblance between him and Minato and it brought back painful memories. That brat was cheeky though; the toad resisted another grumble as he watched the blond slurp down bowl after bowl, he saw Kushina shining through every now and then. The Sannin could understand everything that his sensei was talking about, Kakashi's updates and observant details served right, Naruto was a pure replica of both his parents mixed and apparently he had the same hero-complex and mourning as them, Jiraiya eyed the noticeable book inside his shirt that he kept touching for unconscious reassurance, the journal Kakashi gave to him. Overall he was overwhelmed by the brat's changes, it was incredibly concerning but he seemed fine although Jiraiya did want to check the seal.

Naruto sighed happily and patted his full stomach and slapped all the money on the counter nearly emptying his gama-chan wallet which the toad smirked at; Naruto just assumed that he was laughing because he had no money left. Sighing Naruto thanked teuchi for the splendid meal, the blond turned to the silent Gaara who was eyeing the Sannin with suspicion who was eyeing him back; Naruto sat in the middle twisting his head between them confused.

Jiraiya looked at Naruto in a quick glance Gaara caught and then nodded slightly back for the toad, it was a sign that Jiraiya knew about his help to Gaara and probably everything else except the time travel. Gaara noticed his chakra as the carefully hidden one in the office and thanked kami the white-haired man trusted them and didn't blurt out sensitive information but it wasn't really needed yet.

"Was it a seal?" The toad finally asked, curious; Gaara nodded slightly while the blond sat confused.

"It feels much better" Gaara said while Jiraiya tried not to push to see the sealing before he earned trust.

"What?" The blond questioned making the two break eye contact to look at him blankly, the blond just pouted suddenly moody from being left out, he turned in his seat backwards while crossing his arms to sulk, both Gaara and Jiraiya sweat dropped at the sight. Gaara sighed and got up giving a polite goodbye to the Sannin before stalking off, Naruto shouted out a remark because Gaara left him hanging.

"So gaki, what are doing for the exams because I can train you if you want" The toad Sannin said blatantly not expecting any rejection. The blond was silent thinking carefully, while he would love Jiraiya back he couldn't abandon Sakura with Anko but he really wanted to be with his godfather, the man was a monumental part of his life. Naruto then remembered another person who took up a majority of his life, Kakashi would be left for two years alone, and Naruto would be ages away from him. The blond frowned but before he could consider any response a fuzzball popped into his thoughts.

 **"Kit, Anko could give you a bit more experience and techniques besides she has a certain seal that needs removal too, you should help her"** Naruto's eye's widened suddenly in worry, how could he forget her snake seal problem! **"We can think about the training experience later"** Naruto mentally nodded to the red-eyed bijuu.

"I-im sorry Ero-Sennin but I have another teacher for this period of time" Jiraiya's chest fell from its confidence, Naruto immediately tried to remedy it though, "Although I could never deny an offer of training from one of the legendary Sannin!" Naruto smiled, "Can the offer stand for a while?" Naruto asked worriedly. The toad immediately smiled and laughed,

"What was I thinking? I can't just simply take you away from your sensei especially when you have a girl team mate there too" The toad Sannin elbowed him in a teasing manner, the blond just scowled and shook his head.

"Anyway gaki, of course the offer stands" Jiraiya ruffled the blond hair on Naruto's head that just grumbled at the other's action but smiled in bittersweet happiness. Having Jiraiya around now let him have more options and he still had a lot of plan's in front of him but at least somethings were coming together, Jiraiya was here, he saved Gaara and Sasuke too, Gaara also convinced his father to change his plans in their favour. Naruto probably managed to block the Oro-temi's healing for a while and if it was gone during the invasion then Naruto could get pleasure in his pissed off face when he sees the one who did it. Naruto thought about Sakura and silently nodded that he could see her on the right path to becoming an incredible kunoichi all thanks to Kakashi's sudden change this time around.

Thank kami for Kakashi, the guy upped the ante and always seemed to save him from his depressing thoughts; Naruto briefly wondered if he distracted Kakashi from his own thoughts too. He still hoped to help Kakashi as there was a dwelling past that he knew the jonin wouldn't be able to handle soon. Naruto reached to touch the custom-made journal through his dark shirt and sighed that the Silver-haired Nin had to train away from the village because of the 'silly old geezer-squad' and it made him just a little more pissed than usual.

 **Wow my mum just took my keyboard as i finished the last paragraph and it's quite annoying that i don't have a spacebar button to reply to all of your amazing reviews :(**

 **Thanks for reviews though! You know who you are!**

 **Ah well, i shall manage just to put this out for you guys anyway i'm tired and sick and the bed is waiting for me!**

 **Ja ne~**


	9. Chapter 9

Back flipping the Kunoichi twirled some kunai from the ring in her hands as she landed from the dodge, a determined look was set on her face as dust kicked up behind her; the girl didn't flinch in fear anymore and immediately stood back to back with the bare-footed-blond who joined her. Both spared a quick look between green and blue eye's catching each other's determination and plans. Piercing green eye's scoured the tree line from the middle of their grassy field while the blonde's crystal-blue orbs hid behind tanned eyelids. The boy focused on his own chakra spreading it out searchingly and imbuing into objects for future detection, catching a small almost unnoticeable movement Naruto made no sign he noticed and blindingly spread the field with his chakra.

The pink-haired girl gripped the kunai tighter waiting for the command. There; a twitch on her partners arm, two-o'clock. The green eyed girls eyes continued to search as she tried to be craftier and less noticeable, twisting the kunai around in a swift movement towards two o'clock she blindly threw the kunai, the weapon pierced a bush and made a clunk on a replacement log. A slight buzz caught their ears from the other side of the small pond making the kunoichi roll away whilst grabbing the blond, chakra enhanced shuriken thunked into the ground where they last stood with deadly accuracy. The landing placement was aimed at their feet to make them move, Naruto noticing this pulled Sakura to the trees; both trusted each other completely to cover their backs deflecting Anko's weapons. The kunoichi threw a kunai to Naruto who caught with his finger and disabled a trap seen up ahead while Sakura blocked a weapon aimed at the blond. Sakura flipped to the ground while Naruto hid up in the leaves, the blond was slow to pull in his well of chakra for hiding; Anko took advantage and sent snakes after him, the blond started forming small hurricane jutsu's to blow them away.

The purple-haired sensei withdrew sneakily to deal with the other student; Sakura stood patiently careful not to make any sound as she concentrated all her senses to her surroundings. The kunoichi heard the slight shuffling of dirt and focused on it, blocking out all the shuffling leaves and sounds of birds. She skipped over the natural sounds of animals under the ground and focused on the more sped up digging sound as it drastically switched path every couple of seconds. The ragged breath from it made her sharply look in it direction, the green-eyed shinobi pulled her fist up and charged her chakra into it before bringing it to the ground with a yell. The force rocked the earth beneath her and split the dirt apart in the direction she was facing, a purple haired kunoichi was unearthed and grinning at the pink-haired one as Naruto joined them slightly panting.

"That's gotten impressive" Anko said mildly and looked around at the destruction, it had taken a couple of weeks but they were better than ever both focusing on their natural sensory types to shake her from hiding and it was about time the blond observed the positioning of her throws, they narrowly avoided a trap she made them jump towards. Anko sighed, still exasperated it took them a week to work together, even then they hadn't completely trusted each other but Anko forced them to anyway.

They eventually had to learn that pointing their opponent out to the other would give them away so they had to communicate secretly. Anko smirked as they sat down in exhaustion; she had been running them around all day through everything they should have learnt.

"Alright brat's you have tomorrow off to rest for the exams, you better not disappoint me!" both Sakura and Naruto gulped and nodded quickly.

"C'mon! Time for Dango!" Anko yelled, Sakura sweat dropped as that was all they had after training while blond was reminded of his younger self in the past life; he had subjected the whole team to ramen at any chance he got, eventually they either gave up of disappeared before he could suggest the meal. Naruto gave a weak smile from exhaustion to the tired kunoichi who only rolled her eyes and followed their temporary sensei on the familiar path out of the forest of death.

The whiskered boy tapped his bare-foot impatiently, getting odd-looks from competitors and villagers who hadn't seen his quirks yet. Sakura rolled her eyes as she focused on glaring at her opponent Dosu, who kept his facade of impassivity up but flinched when he got smirked at by the pink kunoichi. The buzz of the audience around them filled their ears as they impatiently waited for the tournament to start, already running late. Naruto understood the weird need to be late but it was hard to be patient when he could finally see Kakashi, he might just strangle them both in fondness; the blonde paused in his foot-tapping at the strange thought before shaking his head in dismissal and finally deciding to distract himself with his tanuki friend. The other competitors who were watching him in interest, fear and dispassion were slightly glad that the killing intent and the scary look on his face let up that seemed to say that whoever was on the end of his ire was going to get it coming for them.

Naruto twitched when the Hokage and proctor decided to start the other matches, nearly slamming his fist into his own palm he was stopped midway to it when a poof of smoke and a shower of leaves covered them leaving Kakashi standing behind his Uchiha charge feigning aloofness.

"Yo" he said lightly eye-smiling, the silver-haired sensei opened his eyes in surprised to hear a smack. The blond continued his previous action and hit his own hand and then turned away to pout, ignoring the man who showed up. Immediately the aloofness was gone and the man crouched down in on himself with shame and sadness, crocodile tears leaking out of his lone eye. Sasuke shuffled away from the man when heard him start murmuring to himself;

"My cute and precious genin hates the sight of me…" the man was rocking back and forth while everyone looked at him like he was insane. Sakura didn't doubt that he was but then she considered the rest of her experiences and decided that at least he was slightly better than Anko. Shuddering, the pink haired kunoichi turned to the other late-comer with a raised eye-brow, the stoic boy only shrugged.

"Ahem" Gekkyo Hayate interrupted and dragged everyone's attention away from the weird situation,

"Everyone leave to the contestant box, except for Hyuuga Neji and Uzumaki Naruto" Kakashi reached his hand out to Naruto to say something but the blond turned away again leaving Kakashi put out as he sadly dragged his feet to the stands, Naruto hid a smile and finally focused on his opponent. The Hyuuga was glaring at him with a self-righteous look like the prat he was; the blond sighed and scratched the back of his head, purposely making himself look bored and uncaring so it annoyed the Hyuuga.

"Ready?" Once the man got confirmation he quickly started the match and jumped out of the way. Everyone watched impatiently as they stared at each other, Naruto started yawning which made the Hyuuga angry; Neji charged at him with the gentle fist stance aiming for a pressure point in the other boy's arms. Naruto followed the action and his opponent's eye's catching on to where the hyuuga boy was targeting but looked uncaring of the situation. The blond pulled up his arm in a quick strike when the other was close enough with his own palm and forced the other's arm by the wrist to move to the side at the last minute. Everyone gasped and the Hyuuga's held in questions of confusion at how he had stopped the gentle fist; Hyuuga Hiashi leant forward with his byakugan activated. Naruto grabbed the arm and twisted it behind the hyuuga's back but the other was quick to pull out a kunai and blindly slash making him let go and turn away.

They paused feet from each other; the glaring hyuuga opened his mouth and spouted something about destiny; Naruto wasn't really sure to be honest although he was kinda bored.

"It's your destiny; no it's your fate to lose…" Fate. Ah, Naruto nearly forgot about his poor puppet friend, not Kankuro no, fate the one who was tied to him apparently. Naruto smiled when he thought about a bunch of puppets stuck together by strings so twisted the only option was to cut them apart, Naruto didn't know if he felt bad for the unknown puppeteer or not. Afterall the puppeteer could've been the one to put him in this situation in the first place. Naruto scratched his whiskered cheek as he stared of into the distance in thought,

"Are you even listening?" Neji asked incredulously; when the other boy didn't get a response he started charging at him again, this time at a chakra point on his chest, upon reflex Naruto leant backwards doing the limbo, surprising even himself as the last time he tried this he got caught on a clothesline as he was running from Anbu, Neij's eye's widened at the other boys reflexes and immediately tried to jump away. Naruto let him go again but decided some action was to take place and maybe a lesson about this destiny and fate stuff. Naruto considered that defeating a hyuuga by being smart and tricky was not something he could do, but getting a chuunin vest by using brute force is barely an option either. Naruto just pouted and realised that he maybe should've had a plan ready, instead he had to test his opponent first for information. Crossing his arms the blond sent clones every which way to gauge his opponent's abilities and maybe even a weakness; wasn't there something about a blind spot? Although he probably made up this information in a dream because of his loaded mind.

The blonds used every weapon at their disposal; some weapons he had even asked Anko about as they were completely unusual and it occurred to Naruto that maybe some more unpredictability could be useful. Double sided kunai and plenty of weapons on chains flew at the Byakugan user, while it had been a big order to even get some of these weapons he could easily multiply them. With orders from their boss to only attack for the experience and knowledge but to attack all at once otherwise he would use his rotation. They couldn't let him blunder through them all without learning anything, Afterall that would be a waste, even Naruto had to consider the chakra amounts he was using in the future otherwise it could've been his downfall.

Each Naruto clone attacked in a pair or more trying to find right angles for a blind spot, it wasn't the easiest task but maybe with trial and error he could find something. The real Naruto walked around the edge of the battle with a crossed arms and calculating eyes that sorted through memories and crossed out points of attack, while a punch from underground had worked last time he thought it could be a good experience to find this so called 'blind-spot'.

Neji was getting frustrated; he had scrapes and cuts from the weird weapons that he had no idea how to counter although he was handling it fairly well given his experience from his weapon-loving teammate. Sweat dripped down the side of his forehead that went ignored as he waited a second for his next attack, they were all in different locations from the last. The Hyuuga couldn't help but shiver, having a feeling he was being mapped out, almost like he was being watched.

Up in the stands the rest of Team 7 and the other rookie-nine all watched the match with confusion trying to figure it out. They had all noted that Naruto somehow seemed to keep pissing his opponent off by doing nothing, Kiba muttered 'Sounds like the normal Naruto to me' under his breath at that. Kakashi was watching the match intently both Sasuke and Sakura were patiently waiting for Naruto's plan to kick in as they both knew that he was positively smarter under that Konoha headband that no-one seemed to look past.

The other sensei's sat confused as Naruto walked around Neij's battle like a vulture or even a panther; he had a deadly look on his face that observed every move Neji made and it was like he was hungry.

"Is he tiring the Hyuuga out?" Asuma asked trying to explain the situation; Kakashi tilted his head to the side before shaking his head.

"No… he's trying to find something…?" Kakashi guesstimated, he was distracted by a sudden accomplishment in his genin's crystal blue eyes. The silver-haired man put his hand up signalling to wait; completely grabbing the other teams' attention and saying that he had figured out that something was going to happen. They all pulled themselves forward watching the outlying Naruto below them now.

Naruto had finally found nearly every point that Neji could see, watching as Neji blocked even more blows by the other Naruto's. At the back of the head and right above the neck, a killing blow if one weren't careful. It was the obvious spot for a weakness in all-seeing-eyes, but it could also be a false weakness; he had to try something other than through jumping out of the ground.

Channelling chakra to his feet he ran up the side of the wall unnoticeable to Neji who was preoccupied but everyone in the stands watched him in curiosity or disbelief some not even considering that the blond could win.

As Naruto sat on the wall below them, Kakashi leaned over to watch as he pulled out a kunai and aimed the blunt end at Neji. This topped the cake in confusion for the sensei's.

"Here goes nothing" he heard Naruto mutter as he lined up a shot to throw seconds before his opponent was in line. The movement was quick, the blonde's crouched body moved with the throw for more force, Naruto knew that the accuracy and timing had to be perfect and the other had to have had no idea.

The wind-enhanced kunai was shooting towards the back of the brunettes head; everyone gaped in shock as they watched the blunt ring end knock the doujustu user in the back of the head. Immediately all the Naruto clones ceased fire and started popping out of existence, giving the blond a hundred different perspectives of his take down. Smiling Naruto hopped down next to the instructor that checked Neji over.

"Uzumaki Naruto Wins" Gekkyo calls out pulling Naruto's hand in the air. It took several seconds for the action to kick in before the roar of the crowd erupted in the stands. Naruto gave a small fox grin at his accomplishment; he took down a hyuuga, HA!

Naruto immediately realised he didn't give the other boy a lesson; maybe he could visit him later when the stick was out of his ass.

Naruto walked up to the competitor's box and immediately got hounded for answers; Naruto didn't quite understand what was so good about it but gave only one answer.

"Anko sensei taught us" Kakashi smirked while the rest of the Jonin looked at him wide-eyed. How could Kakashi leave his genin with that woman?! In turn Naruto and Sakura were immediately reminded who had left them with her, both turned to glare at Kakashi who immediately stood still trying not to provoke them, like being seen by tigers, into doing anything. Naruto hid a smirk as an idea came up to get revenge.

While Sakura intended to hit him over the head; Naruto immediately started ignoring him like he did in the future and had made the other sleep on the couch for nights until he made it up to him. Kakashi deflated while the angry kunoichi looked at her whiskered friend in confusion, Kakashi was wide-eyed, pale and shaky, any retaliation was better than being ignored was the silver-haired man's conclusion.

"N-Naru-chan" Kakashi said weakly only to have the blond silently look further away. The silver –haired man pulled up a slow hand to touch his shoulder, said shoulder moved away. Everyone in the vicinity heard the shatter of a heart as the silver-haired man was rejected, most looked over in interest trying to figure out what was going on between the weird duo.

"B-but Naru-chan!... I'm sorry I was late, I-I was getting ramen for your majesty" The copy-nin pleaded as he begged on his knees. Naruto's eye's slid over to look at him from the corner of his peripheral, eyes slightly hidden behind blonde locks but glinting in interest. Kakashi immediately pulled out the sealed Ichiraku ramen, Naruto knew the exact design for takeaway Ichiraku ramen on the scroll and Kakashi actually had it within his grasp. Naruto's stomach rumbled before he could reply,

"F-fine but if it happens again at important times, I may just have to send you to the stocks, Noblemen Hatake" Naruto said with his nose up in persona of snubbing, eventually he couldn't resist the kneeling silver-haired man holding Ichiraku ramen and eagerly grabbed it. Naruto sat cross-legged and grinned like a fox when he opened to see 9 bowls prepared for him. Sakura and Sasuke rolled their eyes at the antics of their team members and prepared for the next match; everyone else stared at them in disbelief and sweat-dropped at the immediate change in mood from the blond.

"Next we have Kinuta Dosu versus Haruno Sakura" Hayate announced. Everyone in the box looked towards those two who were about to make their way day. Sakura cracked her knuckles together and smirked at Dosu whom held in an unmanly squeak and quickly leave the box. Dosu remembered them from the forest and he could see that they had all changed quickly, the blond still scared him the most but he knew that the pink kunoichi had a grudge for him; he could no doubt see the change in confidence and composer in her as she was now facing him with a lot more calculation than before. He hoped he had just overestimated her instead, though he could feel her watching his back on the way down. Dosu shivered.

 **Im so sorry for the 2 week lateness but my internet was out! ugh i thought about you guys a lot because of it. Well i WAS worried you would start conspiring to hunt me down and lock me in a room and make me write all day and night... Actually that wouldn't be too bad. It'd be like prison but ill be doing what i love and im the only one there. huh yakno what, go ahead.**

 **Every chance i got i would check my emails for new job offers and i would also see so much support from you guys whether vocal or not you are all amazing! So many favs :,3 imma gunna cri.**

 **Anyway enjoy the welcome back treat :P**


	10. Chapter 10

While the awareness of an invasion was put to his advantage, Hiruzen didn't doubt that many casualties, damage and tensions would come along with this invasion. So it was quite the bit of paperwork to prepare, there was no way he the third would dawdle and wait for an inevitable war without being ready. Paperwork from the secret treaty between Suna and Konoha all the way to paperwork for small supplies of kunai, he had signed and regulated them all. Well it still came with a little trouble.

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes in thought as he sat in the Kage's spectator box, his old comrade raised his own concerns of course, the only way for Danzo to keep to the plan was to allow his own Root members to help. Hiruzen had included the clan heads in the invasion plans as well, for the safety of Konoha's people they had brainstormed the best way to control the situation. Keeping the current people in the stadium here was best and getting Anbu to move any outliers to evacuation was crucial.

Hiruzen sighed and leant back in his seat, remaining relaxed next to his ex-student, he realised now what Gaara had meant, for the Kazekage to suddenly wear a mask, not to mention the different body build and skin colour, it was almost too obvious but there was a chance he could've been fooled, luckily he saw the Kazekage in person before this. The plan was for he and Jiraiya to face Orochimaru away from the tower and its occupants although Nara Shikaku had clarified that his student was crafty with plenty up his sleeve and may have other ideas. The thought of facing his ex-student only gave him headaches so he decided to watch the interesting battle playing out before him.

Sakura cracked her knuckles and stood defensively in front of her opponent, she wouldn't let her guard down to anyone now. Sakura tsked with ire, Anko had made her paranoid. Dosu twitched; he needed this over with so the weird feelings of being at the end of angry stares would end.

"Ready?" Hayate asked quickly, only getting a growl and a twitch in return. Taking it as a 'yes' he started the match.

Immediately Dosu ran at her to take her into a taijutsu battle, Sakura pulled out a kunai and twirled it absentmindedly as she ran in as well; Dosu reared back with his arm and punched near the kunoichi his arm whistled loudly next to her, trying to dodge it Sakura got hit in the stomach by the freak sound waves.

Her opponent grinned when she coughed up blood; Sakura stood straight up and wiped the red blood away which caused it to smear as an evil glint lit in her eyes, she was angry now. Running at him, Dosu was glad to follow as he reared his arm back again, it was too quick for his eyes to follow as Sakura had front-flipped over him unpredictably. The pink kunoichi smirked as she flew behind him and landed perfectly before grabbing him in a headlock as strong as a crocodile's. Using her own leg she tripped one of his and bodily threw him down. A smack was heard of his head hitting the ground and everyone in the crowd winced before all proceeded to look away as the sound of a metal arm being crushed under the others foot echoed through the stadium.

It was the most surprising thing out of the kunoichi to use wrestling tactics, the least ninja-like technique around, however it seemed to work for her sudden gangliness and strength. A cry of pure sadistic nature was heard from a corner of the stadium where a resident purple haired interrogator was standing. Sakura grinned in return but tensed when Dosu struggled to get his arm out from under her, twisting it he wrenched his arm away tripping Sakura backwards before slowly getting up himself. Sakura steadied herself and watched as Dosu grabbed his broken arm in pain, she huffed as he got angry and ran at her and pulled his other arm back for attacking. They both jumped around each other and avoided their opponents arms with Sakura being made to move further away from the each blast, both were getting angrier at the others avoidance. Sakura couldn't hit him with weapons because his sound knocked them away and he for some reason couldn't hit her with his weapons either. A month with Anko Mitarashi was all one needed to see through a lousy genin's throw.

Fed up Sakura rocked the ground around her with a chakra powered fist, kicking up the dust for a cover. Dosu spun around in disorientation, trying for find any indication of the shinobi near him, a shift was heard in the dirt on his left side but he wasn't fast enough to turn with his good right arm to get to her. Sakura pulled her leg up and kicked Dosu on his weak side, the shifting of dirt was from her other foot twisting back for more power. Ribs crunched under her foot and the force of it knocked him out of the dusty cloud, he struggled to get up while holding his broken ribs. Sakura sighed at his persistence but thought him brave yet idiotic; just like another she knew.

As is on cue they both ran at each other determined to win, Dosu reared his arm back in a hopeless effort to hit her, Sakura's brutish body language was dropped quickly when she herself dropped to the disturbed dusty floor, with the flexibility of a cat she used her arms to twist her legs into a spin to knock Dosu's legs out. Dosu fell on the back of his head for the second time that day, groaning the genin winced as he touched the back of his head, feeling blood seeping out. Sakura held a kunai between his eyes as he looked up at her, the other huffed and finally forfeited. The kunoichi smiled as the crowd cheered, she held her arm out for Dosu to take and pulled him up after he hesitantly accepted.

"No hard feelings" she said before walking off to her happy team.

Sasuke nodded to her as she approached and Naruto waved happily as he sat between her sharingan user teammates, Kakashi eye-smiled and patted her shoulder in congratulations. Each event like this seemed to pull them closer as a family and Naruto had no doubt that the next event if planned out correctly would bring them all together. Although he hoped that having Ero-sennin aware of the danger towards Hokage-jiji and the village that it may help, even a little. Knowing of the upcoming invasion didn't make it any easier to sit still and wait; in fact he was impatient but also apprehensive of the war to come and just wanted it over with. Gaara and his team would meet team 7 on the outskirts where the giant snakes and army of Oto-nin would invade, atleast he hoped he could get his team to join the fight but being genin means basically sitting back and keeping citizens safe according to any current jonin, which is great and all but he needed to help. Damn hero complex, Kurama always said that his hero complex would have had him killed years ago if he didn't have a demon in his gut. Tch, the furball just doesn't want to admit that he had great charisma to compensate for his weaknesses… Ok so maybe the fox helped a little with his past recklessness as well.

They all watched as Temari and Shikamaru tried to get the upper hand over the other, while Naruto had seen this already he was always fascinated by Shikamaru's ingenious plans and was glad he could watch this play out. It was over quickly though and Naruto couldn't help but look concernedly between Gaara and Sasuke, not only were they going to fight each other but at any moment this war could start and they were in the middle. The only inclination of his worry was shown by the slight crease between his eyebrows and his tense shoulders, he was still inexperienced in his body and couldn't help it when expecting something. Gaara noticed and passed him before he went down,

"I'll protect him" The redhead whispered to him on the way. It only slightly calmed him, he silently looked around at the suspicious Anbu, no doubt Danzo would have had his Root members pick out the fakes already but anything could happen before a Root member stops them. Kakashi seemed to notice him too; wow he must be obvious about his worry now.

The silver haired ninja put a hand on the young blondes shoulder, tilting his head in question.  
"He- They will be alright Naruto." Kakashi tried to assure, seeming to also try to assure himself. The smaller shook his head as he watched the fight start.

"That's not it," his blue eyes darted to the hokage's box and back again, "I have a strange feeling"

It was risky but tipping Kakashi off about the incoming battle would also be incredibly useful, not that he doubted the jonin's reaction time. It's just that he would be more reassured if the silver-haired ninja was on guard as well. Kakashi straightened a little at hearing the blonde's words; the only indication of his tension was his hand that tightened on the blonds shoulder. Kakashi doesn't dismiss warnings of any kind; Naruto might not know it but being a jinchuuriki who can sense upcoming dangers would mean that whatever it may be is going to be big and disastrous. However it could also be just nerves as he doesn't really know if a jinchuuriki has these instincts. Kakashi pulls out his book to hide his eyes as he looked around suspiciously, it may have been damaging to his image if he pulled out a book while his student was in battle but he already had a bad reputation anyway from reading this stuff in public. There actually seemed to be a lot more Anbu around, even for an event like this, and there was suspiciously little smoke reaching to the sky or noise on the other side of the arenas walls, which would usually indicate open restaurants or lively homes.

All these little details only point to the village evacuation, that or a really big and well-drawn out secret takeover of the village, which no doubt would have atleast somebody alerting us. Kakashi looked up at the hokage's box; if it was an evacuation then the Hokage would know about it. He really couldn't know much more about it then to wait for something to happen or nothing…

Sasuke and Gaara stared down; Sasuke wasn't sure what his teammate had with this redhead but he didn't like it. At the drop of a pin Sasuke raced towards him, having increased his speed with Kakashi-sensei, he tried to get passed Gaara's ultimate defence. Naruto watched just like last time where Sasuke pulled away to attack with his Chidori. Gaara put up the pretence of losing control and allowed himself to get hit, to which Naruto winced at. A Chidori was no laughing matter, Gaara let out a roar and again everything burst into action. An Oto-nin put all to sleep and Naruto jumped down to Gaara with Temari and Kankuro.

"Gaara, we must go hold off the snakes, Temari, Kankuro and Sasuke we need you to hold off the army of oto-nin" Gaara and Naruto jumped off to go to the breach in Konoha's walls leaving a very confused Sasuke following Temari and Kankuro as they went towards it too.

"What's the hell is going on?" Temari looked at him questioningly as if he was supposed to know.

"Invasion of Otogakure, both Konoha and Suna signed a treaty to team up against them, originally it was Konoha against Suna and Oto" She yelled back as they raced across rooftops.

The Hokage joined Orochimaru on the roof after he spiked his chakra for the invasion to start, Jiraiya with him before the roof was sealed off.

"Jiraiya this was an unexpected meeting. How did you know?" Jiraiya grinned as Suna and leaf nin killed off Oto Anbu below them and he pointed to them as if it explained anything. Orochimaru was angry, first his failure of sealing Sasuke then the Kyuubi brat sealed his regeneration powers and now Suna and leaf were allied with his idiotic teammate joining him up here. No he couldn't face his sensei and teammate alone.

"Well played Sensei, but I have something for you too, Edo Tensei!" Three coffins rose from the however the Third one was interrupted before it could finish.

Kakashi was completely shocked he had dispatched many fake Anbu but he had seen two of his students race off to the battlefield together. It seemed that Suna and Konoha were aligned in this fight, he watched how many other jonin's rose to action instantly along with clan heads who had obviously known about the invasion but it was Naruto who had also known along with the other sand siblings. Kakashi couldn't leave them facing off against a whole army alone and raced across roof tops after them, he looked behind him to see Sakura had realised as well.

Nodding to each other they joined the battle at the wall with Sasuke, slicing a charging oto-nin with a kunai he yelled to Sasuke,

"Where's Naruto" Sasuke was just about o answer when a giant summoning cloud poofed into existence. The rest of team 7 sweat dropped at his audacity before moving out of the way of Gamabunta as he fought the snake summons. Naruto was thoroughly enjoying his battle with Gaara as they weaved through waves of enemy Nin but it was only when he noticed some leaf chuunin get sliced by bone that he realised Kimimaro was among them. Calling Gaara back he scanned the battlefield and noticed the guy standing on higher ground throwing his bone swords around, Gaara followed him and with the clunk of kunai against bone they fought.

"You don't have to do this Kimimaro!" the other hesitated before settling back into the dance of taijutsu. The jinchuuriki was finding it hard to keep up with his dance and every time he got a hit he was hurt back from piercing bones.

"Listen to me! Orochimaru is only going to use you and then dispose of you!" The blond grunted as another bone pierced his arm.

"You don't have any idea, I'm going to further his life and save his dreams from dying, and it is my only purpose"

"Kimimaro you have your own life to live, a purpose for dying for someone shouldn't be his dreams it should be for love!" Kimimaro frowned down at him, being reminded of his impending death and the life he had before Orochimaru.

"I know not what love is, my own clan never showed such to me. There will be no stop to my death because of an unknown disease I am fated to die." 'Oh god' Naruto thought 'it's this fate stuff again'

"You don't have to fall under that vile man's name, he has only his gain to power in mind and not anyone else's. Listen Kimimaro I know a healer a legendary one and I think she has all the possibility to help you." Naruto swivelled on his foot as he pulled his kunai up to a stalemate between the two, looking into his eyes he saw a tiny hope probably long gone after a failed healing from Kabuto, "We are alike you know, lost clans and ostracised out of fear for our power, give Konoha a chance Kimimaro don't become the ground underneath Orochimaru's feet, find your own journey, I promise it gets better." Kimimaro paused before shaking his head and pushed against the two blocking weapons to throw his arm out with bone sticking out to strike against the blonde's neck.

Swiftly Gaara's sand intervened and stopped the man's body in place, Naruto sighed in relief before knocking the man out with a seal placed on his forehead. Kimimaro fell into Naruto who placed him down carefully.

"Thanks Gaara, I'm going to get Baa-chan and save him soon" Gaara didn't even want to ask who 'Baa-chan' was so he left Naruto to it as he wiped out the rest of waves with his siblings.


	11. Chapter 11

Pulling the tanuki into a hug whilst barely keeping his tears at bay, Naruto choked out a small goodbye, Gaara patted his back awkwardly still not used to human contact. Which Gaara would have to quickly get used to because a certain green-spandex wearing genin was running towards him with crocodile tears. Naruto moved just in time from the path of Lee, Gaara almost being swept off his feet stood still as bushy-brows cried into his shoulder. Naruto felt happy and empathetic for his new friend, however he did have an appointment or two to make so when Lee finally pulled away Naruto pulled up his best smile even if it was tinted with sadness from saying good bye.  
"Gaara I expect to see a new Kazekage at the mantle! The next time we meet I'll bring our brethren!" Naruto hinted at the other jinchuuriki he may become friends with that he and Gaara had talked extensively about wanting to get to know because of the similarities in situations. While Gaara now knew that he would be getting his position of kage soon he could understand that Naruto had a lot more trials and tribulations before he would be kage as well, no matter if he had wanted it or not in the end.

"Naruto be safe" the blond gave him a pointed look that made him roll his eyes, of course his own safety came before the blonds. At that the new sand chuunin siblings joined Baki and left for their own village, it was safe to say that it would be a while before the next Hi no Kuni chuunin exam because of various tensions between many nations. The whiskered genin left first from the group of those who hadn't sustained injuries from the invasion and were saying goodbye to the sand. Naruto was on his way to JIji, the man was in the hospital from chakra exhaustion and smaller injuries however both Jiraiya and the Third had survived Oro-teme and his Edo Tensei technique. No matter how much happiness came from seeing his long lost father, he was really starting to hate that technique, no good came from it and it was an incredibly dirty trick; Orochimaru had no respect for the dead when he summoned them so carelessly.

It was too late now however and Hokage-jiji had it handled since he knew his students techniques well enough and Jiraiya was a Sannin with many tricks up his sleeve. The only concern Naruto had was both of their reluctance to hurt the sickening man let alone severely hurt him and it seemed that he would need to intervene on the man's death more than before because eventually the snake would figure out his seal and have an active counter to it. Groaning Naruto rubbed his forehead in frustration, this back and forth from past and future was killing him. If one thing was certain the whiskered time traveller was not a planner and just for a moment he thought about telling Shikamaru but he would only sigh at Naruto and complain about not wanting to know all of this in the first place.

Continuing his way to hospital Naruto watched as the families moved back into their homes after the invasion, he was glad that there were no civilian casualties from the evacuation but there were still many mourning for the fallen shinobi. He watched as some prayed beside fallen rubble and small patches of faded blood; pure white flowers tightly pressed between their hands. An ambush that some were completely aware of it and it was still not enough to stop casualties. A shinobi walks into this life mostly by choice and they are expected to fight to death where even they themselves expect a death where they are caught totally unprepared. He knows that he himself does not die until the very end but before he didn't know, he didn't know the hardships, the pain and death that follows you in the shadows. Civilians, the elderly and children alike who never chose a shinobi path are exposed to the pain because of that one friend or family member was involved in the dangerous world. Stepping up to the door of the hospital where there was a haze of haste over everyone, a display that he knew wasn't very serious but it was a little more busy than usual. After gathering some Intel from the passing nurse about the rooms of people he knew and ignoring the dirty looks aimed towards him, the blond made his way through the hospital, observant of each room and its occupants. Naruto abruptly backpedalled as he passed a certain room, Naruto hesitated a little before inviting himself in.

"Naruto" Pupil less eyes greeted his,

"Neji" the blond greeted his former opponent. Neji was in his clan's traditional white clothes, Naruto noticed his forehead didn't have the shinobi hitai-ate but rather some bandages instead. It was silent for a moment before both began to speak at once.

"Look-"

"I'm Sorry" Naruto stepped forward, shocked at the Hyuuga's confession.

"What for?" Naruto asked quietly. The Hyuuga reached up to his forehead and pulled away the bandages slowly. Naruto immediately honed in on the seal. To willingly seal your own family members was an atrocious tradition. It may indeed be for safety reasons but a simple seal that destroyed the byakugan upon duress such as meddling around the eyes and upon death would suffice better than something that controlled you families' lives. Naruto didn't want to consider that the control part of the seal was the part they really wanted the most.

"This is the side-branches seal, a seal that stops outsiders from being able to take a byakugan from the less fortified branch" Neji was interrupted by the blond as he sat down in the chair next to him looking closely at the seal.

"Or from a member betraying the main house and getting away with the eyes." Neji flinched but he couldn't deny the truth. He watched as Naruto frowned at his forehead and wondered why he was so mature. The whiskered genin repressed a growl at the immoral acts of the clan.

"I'm going to be straight with you Neji, it definitely seems like your fate is sealed..." Neij's shoulders slumped, previously being kept up by defiance. "from your perspective at the least" Neji swivelled his head toward the other fast enough to hear his neck creak, the blond stood and lifted his shirt causing Neji to recoil before his eyes widened when the blond channelled his chakra.

"I have a seal too, a dangerous one. One that keeps the very demon who took my parents and the Yondaime's life, at bay. I would say my fate is sealed to a life of death, destruction and loneliness, wouldn't you?" Neji shakily nodded and Naruto stopped the flow of chakra and sat down again.

"Well I would say only loneliness was the most accurate one for a while, it's the shinobi life that brings the other two." Heaving a sigh Naruto watched as Neji looked down in thought, feeling sad for the hyuuga, he remembered when Hinata had promised a day where she would remove the branch member's seals but that had been postponed because of war, and then it was too late and Neji was gone.

"Neji, as a person with a hero complex and an Uzumaki, I promise that I will advance enough in my sealing arts to free you and your family members." Neji shook his head,

"It won't be enough, it may be what we want but it won't keep the priority of the safety of the byakugan from enemy hands" Naruto smirked.

"Well of course not, we obviously need some sort of countermeasure that does, say I don't know... destroys the byakugan upon duress of it being stolen or upon death, a protection seal of two should do well too" Naruto watched as Neji slowly smiled a small smile of hope. Upon having gotten the tension out of the way Neji narrowed his eyes at Naruto.

"Hinata-hime seems too interested in you. What have you done to her?" Naruto paused wide-eyed, did Neji understand the concept of girl crushes yet? If not this would be very awkward.

"Ano.. well you see, there's this thing called a crush and H- Hinata-chan has one, I believe she's had it for a while... umm" Neji glared at him for more explanation.

"Eh heh, I'd rather see her as a sister though" Naruto decided to skip the part about it being him who she was crushing on, trying to get a point across without saying it, was hard. Naruto slowly stood up and walked backwards out of the room as Neji tried to comprehend what he just implied.

"It was great to see you Neji, have a good recovery, Ja ne!" Neji was left staring at the door glad that he didn't remind him that the head of house would be on a war path to see Naruto about his finding of a Hyuuga's weakness. Neji smirked at the assurance of Naruto's demise, a crush on Naruto? If Naruto hurts Hinata-hime in any way with rejection it won't just be the head that'll be after him.

Naruto continued on to the room he was originally going, half expecting an angry Hyuuga to run after him. He heaved a relieved sigh as he entered the Hokage's room.

"Hokage-sama, Jiraiya-sennin" Naruto acknowledged them both appropriately. The blond walked forward and observed both of their bindings for anything amiss.

"Naruto-kun, how are you?" Naruto shrugged lightly as he sat down.

"I could ask the same of you" The Sandaime huffed at his maturity and Jiraiya grinned,

"He has a point Sensei, you're getting worse over the years, maybe you should consider a successor" Naruto nodded eagerly in agreement. He didn't want to see the Hokage actually die still in that position like last time.

"Who then?" Jiraiya paused, he wouldn't take the mantle and Naruto was too young, Jiraiya watched as the blond looked to him innocently with big azure eyes. Then it would have to be... Tsuande?!

"Uh Sensei I think we will have to bring an old comrade home" The Third blanched at him while Naruto did his best not to smirk and look confused instead.

"Then you have the best chance of getting her back Jiraiya" The sennin sighed before looking over at the Yondaime's kid. Jiraiya smirked,

"Naruto your coming with me on this one" Naruto blinked and nodded before turning to the Third.

"Hokage-jiji-sama can Team 7 come with us?" he asked with his best puppy-dog eyes. Sarutobi laughed,

"Of course Naruto-kun, keeping up teamwork is important as well. Oh Naruto before I forget. Your performance during both the preliminaries and finals was exemplary so I have decided to upgrade you to Chuunin." As if on que Jiraiya put a chuunin vest over his shoulders, Naruto smiled but it wavered.

"Who else?" The Third listed off Shikamaru as the only other Chuunin. Naruto's smile fell.

"While I appreciate the promotion, I cannot accept this Hokage-sama" Naruto said as he pulled the vest off his shoulders and both shinobi face-faulted at the statement. Naruto rubbed at the Uzumaki swirl on the back of the vest,

"I cannot have this when Sasuke didn't get a chance to prove himself, and if Sakura is not ready then we cannot be a team. Thank you for the kind thought though" Naruto said as he carefully placed the chuunin jacket at the end of the hokage's bed and walked towards the door.

"I hope you get better soon Hokage-sama and I'll tell my teammates about the upcoming trip Jiraiya-san" The whiskered blond left the room quietly after that leaving two speechless shinobi behind.

"He's too wise for his age" Jiraiya broke the silence.

"Indeed." The Third frowned at the door of the room.

Naruto let his feet lead the way as he let his mind wander towards the future that he thought of often. Too many possibilities awaited him which came with many dangerous decisions. However he really wouldn't be Naruto if he didn't rush in and manage problems when they got in the way. This didn't mean that he couldn't prepare his team before Madara happens. He had two years or less before the Akatsuki makes its major moves and his team needed to be at peak condition for this, whilst he would like to protect everyone and take all the pain himself, it just wouldn't work. Logic always seemed to get in the way of his emotions.

The ramen stand was quiet when he entered, sitting down he greeted Teuchi and his daughter with a wide grin as he let his sombre mood disappear. Naruto stared at the broth; Sasuke's distant future self was impressive with the katana and justu's however this time he would need a new contract unless the snakes themselves acknowledged them however Naruto didn't think they were suited for Sasuke. Sakura would become an accomplished medic however she had plenty of room for improvement, taijutsu was an option as well as weapons, if she could create earth element weapons with minimal chakra then she wouldn't be so out of the situations at hand. Of course all would need to expand into their own arts or more importantly make everything they had more precise.

You never knew what shinobi is capable of, especially after seeing the whacked up jutsu's used by Orochimaru...and the undead. Naruto shivered and decided it was getting a little late for tonight, slapping his payment down he left for home.

"You can thank Naruto-kun for this, Kakashi" The Sandaime stated to the grey-haired shinobi.

"What do you mean by that Hokage-sama?"

"He asked for the team to join, originally him and Jiraiya, on the two year mission as well as the search for a new Hokage."

"Very subtle of him was it?" the man responded sarcastically.

"Indeed" the older chuckled from behind his pipe. The third frowned however when he remembered what came after.

"Naruto was given a promotion Kakashi." Kakashi was proud however he quickly became confused at the Hokage's face.

"What happened?" he questioned with far more interest than before.

"He rejected it; he said it would not be fair on the team, especially when Sasuke had no chance."

Realisation struck Kakashi, however he didn't feel disappointed at all. He hadn't really instilled teamwork at all and Naruto had just displayed it in one action alone. Kakashi chuckled and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"What can I say? He's a changed shinobi." Sarutobi huffed before shooing the man from his office.

 **Now I don't want to make excuses but... things happened, such as loss and too many god dang exams and that "ultra important test that determines your future" and other crap such as WRITING BLOCk. Sorry if this is exactly 500 words less than what i usually make myself do. anyway a little backstory to the delay, I had term 3 not graduation just term 3 with a butt-load of tests/assignments and exams. Being op is hard. So term 4 is just basically a chill sesh and then im done year twelve of school! YAY. Ill get everything out of the way for this term and then give all of you guys my attention.**

 **My mind is buzzing with ideas, no literally these bees are annoying.**

 **Thank you for your patience! 3 Jasper~**


	12. Chapter 12

Teuchi chuckled as he replaced the ramen bowl easily around the blonde's stack of emptied ones, slurping continued at he stuffed his face over and over. Naruto wasn't exactly hungry he was just embarrassed, he's completely done things out of the norm lately such as reject offers of promotions and cry for red-headed friends or save crazy powerful enemies from the dark path they walked down. Okay so maybe it wasn't that different from before but Naruto would like to think so. A grunt startled the blond from his ramen bowl and he peaked out its side to see his sensei sitting down beside him, oh kami.

"How did you know?" Kakashi stared at the blond who looked at him from the corner of his bowl, obviously hiding something. Slowly putting his half empty bowl on the counter, with as much dignity as the blond could pull up, he wiped his mouth and swung around to meet his sensei.

"I may have err… helped Gaara with control over a specific beast and he may have felt guilty about what Oto and Suna were going to do to Konoha after that. Gaara asked his Father to organise a treaty with Hokage-jiji which we we're mostly prepared for after that." Naruto tried to keep to half-truths, it was with difficulty that he stayed calm when the Jonin scrutinised him.

Kakashi stared, like for real? His genin decided to approach a very unstable jinchuuriki and by some miracle gain his trust while helping him stable himself as well as gain the upper hand for the entirety of Konohagakure in the process? What kind of therapy did this kid have? Belatedly Kakashi realised that Gaara hadn't been suffocating with his killing intent lately and wondered if the seals he saw had anything to do with it. Surely not, Naruto couldn't be that talented already he only just got introduced to the subject. Naruto continued nervously, trying to fill in the void with weak explanations.

"Jiraiya-sennin showed up too and helped with holding off Oro-teme and with Anko-sensei's training I felt ready to get into action and then everything was happening and we had to keep the army at bay as well as deal with Kimimaro and it was all hectic…. Im Sorry for not being able to warn you properly." Naruto trailed off when he saw Kakashi focus on him again, the Jonin shook his head, it wasn't Naruto's fault he was late and unable to be warned surrounded by unknowing genin and enemies alike. However, another thought occurred to the silver-haired man during Naruto's explanation.

"So, Naruto… why did you save Orochimaru's protégé?" Now Naruto had literally no explanation for this, unless he was going to reveal his amazing future-seeing powers he had no way of swaying the man's suspicions.

"Well you see, he was talking about not having any purpose but to be _used_ for Orochimaru's desires" Naruto became more passionate as he recalled all the times this problem had showed its scars to the world, his first experience being Haku. Belatedly he wondered about Haku and how he was with Zabuza right now, probably not very good but fine enough for the time being.

"People are not tools or objects for others to use or step on, everyone belongs to their own person and they shouldn't be obligated to lay down their lives and give up for someone who doesn't respect them for it anyway" Naruto knew that he was revealing too much knowledge on his part but he was frustrated at the world, at everyone who does this to others. Naruto sighed as he stared at his bowl, Kakashi instead stared at him in wonder. He was far more noble than Kakashi ever had been at his age, in fact it bordered being wise and dare he say experienced. Kakashi had the feeling again that Naruto was an unending and impossible puzzle that just gave him more confusing information the more he understood.

Naruto blushed, Kakashi was staring. Coughing, Naruto placed down the money for his food and made to leave but paused when all Kakashi did was watch.

"Are you coming sensei? We have to inform the rest of the team about the upcoming mission."

"You put us up for finding the new Hokage with Jiraiya?" he asked as they walked down main street towards Sakura's house.

"Yeah, I can't go running off when being with the team is more important at the moment, simple solution was to get Team 7 to join me, and Jiraiya-sama has some incredible lessons I'm sure he will teach as well, wouldn't want you guys to lag behind now would I?" the blond sent a mischievous fox grin his way as they reached the porch of Sakura's place. A tired and ruffled pink-haired genin answered.

"Ne Sakura we're meeting up for mission details at the training ground" Naruto said scratching the back of his neck, it wasn't usual to see Sakura so exhausted after a fight, in fact future Sakura was exceptionally good at hiding when she was tired, the training of medic jutsu's required patience and a fortified overall look, they were everyone's support on the battlefield and were trained to be strong for others. Either way it was refreshing to see Sakura's down side sometimes, she probably only stopped looking strong in her own privacy in the future. The genin nodded at the two spritely beings at her door and rubbed at her eye's.

"mmm-k Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, I'll meet you guys at the grounds after I freshen up." Naruto grinned and Kakashi waved as they started to head further passed town towards Sasuke's residence.

Naruto stopped their lazy walk as they approached the compound gates, the walls with the famous Uchiha fan symbols were suffering in disrepair at old age and the place looked quite depressing, buildings creak as the wind races through the lonely streets and an utter quiet seems to have settled permanently over the Uchiha's legacy, not even the peeps of lively insects or animals could break it. Naruto felt sorry for Sasuke in this moment as the boy was still living in the shadows of his clan and Itachi's massacre and now it had just been revealed that it was the clan's fault in the first place.

Maybe he should ask Sasuke to move in with him somewhere else for the time being, and maybe later Sakura could join them. Kakashi watched Naruto's expressions throughout the day, his genin kept getting lost in his own thoughts which then spilt through with the raising of an eyebrow or a reminiscent smile, sometimes even a pitying look and his azure eyes. Naruto's eyes held unlimited amounts of expressions, the opposite of himself when he looks in a mirror, his eyes were dull and had the ever tiredness of a shinobi with plenty of regrets.

They found Sasuke training his fire-techniques over the clan's river, sweaty and tired but still rearing with life as he executed his technique.

Naruto waved as Sasuke turned around in defence at hearing the purposeful twig-snap sound Naruto made in approach.

"Mission briefing at the usual place teme, go freshen up." The Uchiha tsked at being ordered around but was too preoccupied to argue and so he nodded silently at the duo and made to do just that.

"Ne Kakashi, are there much places that would be willing to have a tenant like me paying their rent?" Kakashi looked at him in interest before looking at what Naruto was seeing, the abandonment of the Uchiha clan and the atmosphere that remained around the compound was very much not a good place for a teen or kid to grow up alone in.

"Well I may know a few who are detached towards the whole kyuubi invasion, one in particular is a foreigner who probably doesn't care who you are as long as you pay up rent and don't cause any trouble." Kakashi replied, the man was crude and didn't very much like anyone however he was passionate about selling the perfect cups of coffee and Kakashi wouldn't lie that after a particularly rough mission he would side-track to his small café and have a lovely cup. The man was perfectly content to leave his clients to drink in silence, in fact he wasn't overtly friendly at all but the man was loyal and has kept many secrets for Kakashi after stressful or heart-wrenching missions. There was no one better he could have recommended for Naruto.

"His name is Sojiro, he owns a small café that has units connected which he gives tenancy to, he wouldn't mind a ninja who used an alternate way to get into their apartment so as not to be seen have a tenancy there." Kakashi casually droned on about the strange man and Naruto grinned. It wasn't common to get such useful help in his early years without constant questioning as to why and what and how's. Kakashi was very astute and probably already figured out what he was up to but nevertheless he didn't ask, just provided and that's exactly the man he needed right now.

"Alright team, it has been decided that after the invasion a new hokage should succeed the third. The Sandaime has a successor in mind and has decided team 7 plus 1 should attempt to retrieve her." Sasuke looked at the jonin with a raised eyebrow,

"'Attempt?' what does that mean?" Sakura followed him up with concern,

"'Plus 1?'" Naruto just grinned as Kakashi sighed.

"We are attempting to retrieve Konoha's slug princess Senju Tsunade and we will be accompanied by Jiraiya-sama." Sakura was shocked, Senju Tsunade left the village and had promised never to come back. However, it would be logical that she be an appropriate successor especially compared to Jiraiya and Orochimaru.

"I need all of you to be prepared for a long journey where anything could happen, pack plenty and bring your own studies for training. We leave in a few days, meet at the hokage's office before we leave. You're dismissed team." Kakashi then promptly disappeared. The three genin looked at each other blankly but Sakura finally decided to break the ice.

"Hey Naruto, how come you weren't promoted to chuunin? Finding the Hyuugas weakness would probably warrant a raise." Sasuke leaned in with a brow raised, clearly suspicious.

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Ahh, I rejected the offer." Both recoiled.

"What! Why?" Sakura questioned loudly, suddenly lively that she heard unbelievable information.

"Ne I decided that it wouldn't be unfair on you guys for me to get promoted", Sasuke looked at Sakura in confusion and huffed.

"You're an idiot, Naruto" The blond looked at him confused, not understanding their disapproval.

"Yeah Naruto, you won that promotion fair and square. You should have taken what's yours because you earned it" Sakura crossed her arms along with Sasuke.

"But Sakura if you're not ready then I don't want it, and Sasuke didn't even get a chance. We can't be a team without you." Naruto edged back.

"Don't be silly Naruto, you can't break this team apart with one promotion. We'll be together until the end whether you like it or not." Naruto looked at Sasuke who grunted in agreement and let a soft smile appear. It was amazing what a few changes could make to this team.

That night Naruto cried for the team he lost and sat confused between his feelings for the new team he created and quickly became attached to, he made an ideal team but his old team was his family no matter how dysfunctional it was.

Naruto met his team plus 1 at the front gates of Konoha, they were to head to the last gambling place Tsunade was rumoured to be at, and were to try and convince her to take the Hokage position. Naruto wasn't so sure he could convince her again with Rasengan since he already knew it however he was sure some other bet would suffice, Tsunade loved betting and Naruto would get her to re-join Konoha one way or another.

With a glance everyone set forth on the trail towards the Slug Princess, Naruto however lost in his thoughts he may have been could not help but feel eyes on the back of his head watching him. Naruto peeked to see Jiraiya watching him thoughtfully and some concealed suspicion in his gaze, Naruto gulped. He had no idea what he did to warrant it but he hoped he hadn't slipped up too awfully otherwise it might blow his whole cover.

It wasn't until they made it to an inn on day 7 that he was cornered but the toad-sannin, Jiryaiya made quick work of a privacy jutsu in Naruto room before towering over him as if to interrogate him.

"So Naruto, since when have you had a toad summoning contract?" Naruto panicked. He had totally forgotten that he wasn't taught anything by Jiraiya in this timeline, breaking out in sweat Naruto freaked out when he thought of anyone else who may have noticed. As if reading his thoughts Jiraiya grabs his attention.

"As far as I can tell no one else had noticed what with the invasion but I find it funny that Gamabunta had no issue over you summoning him, it's as if he already knew you. Not only that but you have seal work that is masterful for someone who has only just started. You may have pulled the wool over everyone else's eyes but I'm not as easy." Jiraiya smirked when all Naruto could do is gape in horror and then he really stated to panic, going into overload Naruto's thoughts raced as he tried to explain this one off.

An uncomfortable shuffle and a huff resounded through his head, the fox was also thinking.

'Kurama help me! He's too good!' Naruto pleaded toward his furry friend. The red slitted eyes narrowed before considering Jiraiya. Maybe he could help Naruto, it would help cover a lot of implications and any slip ups that Naruto makes in the future, not only that but if Naruto could share the burden of his knowledge he would have more perspectives and ways to carry out plans. Jiraiya did have an extensive spy network to boot.

 **'Kit, you're going to have to tell him'** Naruto gaped at him wider than he did at his toad-sensei.

'WHAT?!' the Kyuubi shuffled in annoyance at his yelling.

 **'Tell him everything, this is the time to do it, he's got a lot of power and can help you in the long run, we can pretend that the slip ups you had were because you had Jiraiya teach you.'** Naruto considered it for the moment, staring at the water under his feet in concentration. Kurama got antsy and so was Jiraiya, abruptly Kurama asked him simply.

 **'Do you not trust Jiraiya? With the future where he dies, do you not believe he can help you bring peace to the shinobi world, like he so dreamed and entrusted you with?'** Naruto's eyes watered as he huffed, of course he trusted him. Jiraiya was one of his precious people but Naruto was scared, of how he would react, would he berate him? Laugh at him for telling such a tall tale or would he execute him, believing him to be an imposter and trying to bring harm to the village?

Naruto decided and returned to the toad-Sannin who was looking at him bored, but still in his way of moving anywhere to run, there was no getting out of this without a worthy explanation and the only worthy one he had was the truth. Naruto breathed in to steel himself before looking into his sensei's eyes with his own watery ones.

 **Hey there guys, I've finally picked up where I've left off. Sorry it's been so long and I don't have excuses for this one but I know you've all been eager and I'll try to provide from now on.**

 **Ja ne~**


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